The Demigod of Brockton Bay
by uo-chou
Summary: When a God from another dimension visits Taylor Hebert in the middle of the night, she is gifted with enough power to change her life forever. Follow her journey to solve her own problems, and then those of her city, and ultimately the misfortunes of the entire world. Watch out, because divinity once more walks the world of Earth Bet.
1. Chapter 1

**The Demigod of Brockton Bay**

 **A Worm/Demigods CYOA Story**

 **Chapter 1: Hi God, It's Me, Taylor**

Taylor Hebert knew something wasn't right the moment she woke up. She had been having a strange dream, one where she crying out for help to anyone who would listen, begging the cosmos to deliver her from the torment of her life. The brunette teenager sat up in bed, rubbing her weary eyes. She looked out her bedroom window, noticing that it was still late in the night. The brunette girl was sure that she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. Tomorrow was going be a nightmare; not only would it be the first day of her Sophomore year in highschool, with all of the bullshit which that entailed, but she was going to have to deal with it while exhausted.

Picking up her glasses from the nightstand, Taylor looked around her moonlit room carefully, wondering why she still felt inexplicably worried. Funny, she thought, her closed door was open. Shrugging, she got up from bed and walked toward the door to the hallway, stopping there to flip on the light switch there. When she turned back around to face her room, the teenage girl's heart began beating so hard that it felt like it would jump out of her chest, and a massive spike of adrenaline shot through her veins. There, standing in the doorway of her closet, was a being from a fantasy novel… or a horror movie.

Looking back, Taylor would never understand how she kept from shrieking in pure, unadulterated terror. Eventually, she would decide that the being who visited her that night had probably done something to keep her from attracting attention. In the here and now, however, she wasn't concerned by why she didn't cry out; all of her attention was focused on the topless, winged woman in her bedroom. Using every bit of the steely determination that she developed throughout an entire year of bullying, the young teen managed to speak.

"What are you doing in my home?" She asked, her voice barely more than a cracked whisper. It took everything that Taylor possessed to keep from trembling in the face of what could only be a parahuman, one of the rare people in the world who possessed superpowers. Looking at the woman's shadowy face, and the lizard-like tail which emerged from the back of her dress and brushed lightly across the ground, she was reminded of rumors of capes whose powers had twisted their bodies, turning them into something both less and more than human. 'Monstrous Capes', she remembered one of the silly twits back in her middle school cafeteria whispering to the girl beside her, just loud enough that Taylor had heard it. And then the woman spoke, and her fear turned to confusion.

"My dear child." She chided, in a voice that was so far beyond "lovely" or "beautiful" that Taylor didn't know a word to describe the unearthly rapture of listening to this person speak. "I am of course here because of your request." The second time she spoke, it was with a hint of playfulness, as if she and this bizarre woman were involved in some time of game, rather than the rather more serious situation they found themselves occupied with.

"My… request?" Asked taylor hesitantly. She had never met this woman in her life, let alone invited her into her home.

"Of course, Ms. Hebert." Firm affirmation, no joking at all. The winged cape was pure business, now. "Do you not recall crying out to anyone, or any _thing_ that would listen, just minutes ago? Begging the universe at large to deliver you from your horrendously unhappy life?" I couldn't see the twisted angel's face, but it sounded like she was smiling as she said this.

Taylor goggled… could this woman have somehow… _heard her dreams_? The young girl had vividly recalled her dreams the moment she woke up, and they were exactly as the winged parahumans had described. If this cape was somehow here to help her, Taylor wondered, then maybe she would end up surviving this encounter without becoming yet another victim of parahuman violence.

She grimaced, thinking about the reason why she had feverishly implored the world for help while she was sleeping. Her summer had been more than tolerable, and she had savored every moment that she had been able to leave her problems behind her. The brunette's freshman year had become a nightmare when her best friend in the whole world, a girl that she had seen as a sister, had suddenly turned on her. Every secret that she had whispered to Emma Barnes over the years has become a weapon in her hands, something used to torture and humiliate her.

What was worse, was that Taylor couldn't bring herself to fight back, not against Emma. At first it was because she was so astounded by her betrayal that her sheer surprise wouldn't allow her to. After the shock had worn off, she had held back from doing anything else because she knew it wouldn't do any good. She had told teachers and office staff what Emma and her gang had done to her, showed them proof even, only to be constantly rebuffed. She knew that if she fought back, her tormentors would simply escalate, and the whole thing would end up getting blamed on her.

Now, perhaps, someone was offering her a way out. Her father had failed her; he was purposefully ignorant of her life, due to his continuing depression over the loss of Taylor's mother over a year ago. Her school had failed her as well; they refused to even entertain the idea that she might be telling the truth about her bullies. And Emma… Emma had failed her the worst of all, transforming into a twisted, freakshow caricature of her former self. Perhaps Taylor hadn't ever really known who she was… Regardless of the details, she had no one who willing to give her a way out. Until now, that is.

"Of course." Taylor answered, her voice becoming more confident. "I'm sorry for being so rude, before. You said that you came here to help me?" She studied the subtly wrong angel, her eyes taking in every bit of information she could glean, as the girl stood there in her pajamas. She wondered just what type of help the creature would offer her, if any.

"Oh, yes. There's the girl I sensed." The parahuman chuckled. "Oh, by the way… I'm not a parahuman. I don't think that I'll tell you what I really am, as it would lead to confusion and disbelief, both of which I have little time for. Suffice to say, I am a being of many abilities and talents, and I have come here to offer you something that you have dearly desired all of your life." The being's voice was liquid silk in Taylor's ears, almost compelling her to ask the obvious question.

"What are you offering?" Asked the bespectacled youth. She asked the question, but she already knew what the woman would say. Even though she didn't believe it, the mere possibility sent her veins thrumming, and her tingly sparks shooting down her nerves.

The being chuckled, her wings twitching from her mirth. "But you already know, don't you young one?" She paused, her levity suddenly gone. "I'm offering you power." The last word was whispered, but it hit Taylor with the force of a semi truck.

"What would I have to do?" Whispered the girl.

"Nothing." Said the angel, shocking Taylor. "You see, I'm dying. Or rather, I have decided to die. I'm so massively powerful that I could sustain my existence indefinitely, but where's the fun in that? I'm going on a journey of discovery in places that you are not capable of imagining, and I cannot take the power I wield on this level of existence with me. I have split my power into pieces, and gifted the majority of it to those worthy few I found in my own dimension, which is not this one."

The snake-tailed woman paused, her shadowy gaze locked onto Taylor's, judging her. "This world has need of a hero. Someone to save the innocent from the coming storm. I believe that you have what it takes, to be this hero, young one. I have saved two full measures of the power I gifted to many others, and it's just for you." She chuckled, making Taylor flush at how beautiful the sound was. "You will need need double what I gave to the others in my home world, just to survive in this disgusting hell-world."

Taylor felt a sudden surge of anger at this being's disregard for her birthplace. Then she thought about it for a moment, before silently agreeing with the misshapen angel. Earth Bet was basically a polished turd, after having suffered nearly three decades of abuse from parahumans and the Endbringers. "Tell me what I have to do to gain this power." Said the girl, steeling herself for some bizarre ritual, or a painful ritual.

Oddly, despite not being able to see the woman's face, Taylor once more felt her smiling. "You will need to…" she paused, her voice trailing off.

"Yes?" Taylor asked, her voice desperate.

"You will need to fill out this paperwork!" Said the bare-chested being. Taylor nearly fell to the ground, such was her astonishment.

"Paperwork!?" She exclaimed, her earlier reticence forgotten.

"Well, you don't expect me to sit her for the rest of the night describing the options that you can pick, do you? There are quite a few to choose from, after all." The tone of voice was matter of fact, and before Taylor knew it she was perusing a series of powers that she could buy with "points" that the angel had told her were now hers. The powerful creature, or cape, or whatever she was, had informed Taylor that she would get 200 of these points to spend, which was evidently twice as many as the woman's earlier recipients had been given.

Taylor was rendered speechless at the list of powers and abilities given, and nearly fainted at some of their descriptions. She realized that with the right combination of the powers listed here, she could become more powerful than the entire Triumvirate put together! Still, raw combat ability wasn't what she was after. Yes, she would need to be able to defend herself, but she also wanted to pick powers and abilities that would allow her to help the greatest number of people that she could. She asked the angel a few questions, when the supplied details weren't completely understandable, but for the most part worked quietly. After an indeterminate amount of time, she was finished.

Handing the filled out paperwork to the angel, she waited tensely. If this were some sort of elaborate prank, or a way for some cape to get their jollies, she imagined that right now would be when they revealed it to her. The angel looked over the choices which Taylor had made, occasionally making a humming or clicking noise, as if in wonderment or approval, though only the strange being knew what the noises actually meant. Finally, she finished reading, and the papers simply disappeared, as if they had never been.

The angel clapped her hands, and for the first time since she had arrived, stepped out of the high schooler's closet. As she approached, Taylor felt a metaphysical weight begin to settle over her, as if worlds worth of gravity was settling on her shoulders. When the angel was close enough to touch, the curly haired teen was not even able to move... such was the ambient power of the being standing in front of her. The angel's face, which had been shrouded in shadow, was finally revealed. Taylor nearly fainted at the sight, but with a massive exertion of her willpower she resisted the temptation. The sight of the...God's face was indescribable. Something had changed within her, Taylor knew, or else the mere vision of that divine countenance would have killed her as surely as any bullet or laser beam.

"Yes." spoke the God, directly replying to her thoughts. Taylor, a lifelong atheist, suddenly realized that she had been wrong the entire time, and the weight of that simple realization was more potent than the physical force holding her rooted to the ground. "I am a God. But you were right to think that there were no Gods in this dimension, "Little Owl"."

The being chuckled. "There are no more Gods on your world. They existed here, once, but all of them passed on millenia ago, leaving your planet to the mercies of any creature of sufficient power to come along. But now that I have empowered you, there is a chance, albeit a slim one, that one day soon a God will tread on the soil of Earth Bet." Taylor could hardly believe what the deity was implying… It couldn't be, could it?

"You now carry more of my spark than any other single being, so it's possible that one day you may be able to take up my mantle. If you desire this, then know that for a Demigod to achieve true Godhood, she must do great deeds. Your accomplishments must cause mountains to shake, or for great towers to be built. Entire armies of mortal men must tremble at your passage… or salute you. The entire world must know of you, and either love you or fear you for this possibility to come to pass." The teenager's eyes were as wide as dinner plates at this announcement, the mere possibility that she might be able to become an actual God so astounding and earth shattering that she had no clue what to say or do.

The God's voice was quieter, now. More… personable. "But… of those I have empowered, you, Taylor Hebert, are one of the few who might actually be able to do it. I go now, to my destiny. The greater universe awaits me. If you succeed in replacing me, then one day I expect you to meet me in the great beyond, to where I now travel. Know that I do not say this lightly, but I would be very pleased to see you succeed me in my profession, Taylor."

Taylor's savior reached down, running her fingers along her jawline. Energies beyond comprehension crackled as she did so, and a jolt shot through the girl, adding a little something extra to the immense power which she had already been given. "A few personal gifts, beyond what I have already provided to you." she whispered, winking at the high schooler. Taylor blushed, and before she knew what was happening, the enigmatic being from beyond the boundaries of the world was gone, leaving Taylor Hebert standing alone in her bedroom, facing a suddenly vacant closet.

 **.** **.** **.**

I stood there, rooted to the same spot for an indeterminate amount of time, simply existing. When I came back to my senses, I realized with a start that it was light out now and I had no idea of the time. I scrambled over to my bed, glancing at the clock. I sighed, it was only 6:15, and there would be plenty of time to get ready before school started. I hurried into the bathroom, closing the door behind me and flipping on the light. Upon glancing into the mirror, I paused, dumbstruck by what I saw there. The reflection in the mirror was still me, but at the same time it wasn't. Before my encounter with the God, my eyes had seemed a little too large, and my lips too thin. I had vaguely disliked my nose, and I thought of my hair as my best, most feminine feature.

My hair had competition, now; major competition, to be sure. My features were all... _refined_ , for lack of a better term. They were still mostly the same shape, and in mostly the same places, but they had each been modified _just so_ to subtly correct any flaws and draw out the beauty that had seemingly been hidden within me the whole time. Because I was most assuredly beautiful, now; almost supernaturally so, in fact. The hundreds of tiny changes which had been made to my face… as well as the rest of my body, I noted, after glancing down, had created a whole which was much more than the sum of my individual parts. I twirled around, smiling as I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. I was beautiful now!

Every insecurity, everything about my body image that used to give me pause or make me feel less than pretty… each and every thing that Emma and her cronies had used to tear me down was _gone_. There was absolutely no reason for me to feel insecure about how I looked now, because I was literally the most beautiful person that I had ever seen. And not just in person, either; I'm not ashamed to admit that I looked better than any model or actress on TV or in fashion magazines. I had almost not picked "Divine Beauty", wondering if it was worth the points that I would have to spend on it. I had selected it out of vanity, and the desire to look better, something I think most girls and women would have done in my place as well. Hell, I'll bet most men would have gone for that particular perk as well. I had never expected that it might actually be able to stack up to the other powers and attributes which I could have picked instead.

Now I knew why "Divine Beauty" was worth the points. I really _was_ supernaturally gorgeous; I doubted that there was a mortal alive who could compete with my appearance now. And somehow, I was still recognizably _me_ even though I now looked like this. Magic, indeed. I laughed so hard that I nearly choked, wondering how I had ever been jealous of _Emma Barnes_. She was a shit covered sow compared to the new me. The stupid bitch would have a heart attack once she saw my new appearance! I would not have to use my "Illusionist" powers to hide my appearance, from anyone other than my father, at least. He was the only person who had seen me every day this summer, as thanks to Emma I didn't have a single friend my own age any longer. I had gone the whole summer without once running into the bitch who made every day of school a torment last year.

Still, I would slowly reveal the true me over the course of a month or two to my dad, so that I wouldn't have to hide the way I looked from my only living parent long-term. It might take a couple of months of incremental changes, but he would be seeing the real me soon enough. I was a little worried that someone gross might try to hit on me, or something like that, but it wasn't a big worry. I was supposed to have the power to move faster than the speed of sound and levitate objects with my mind now, so there wasn't much that was a threat to me any longer. I should probably start learning how to use my powers right away… at least a few of them. God knows that with my luck, it would be sooner rather than later when I would need them.

I quickly showered and dressed, performing the various other sundry morning tasks along the way. I practiced using my illusions in the shower, finding it extremely easy to make my body look like it did prior to my transformation. My powers appeared to be insanely intuitive… either that, or my newly upgraded mind was just that good. It was probably a combination of these things, I eventually decided. I didn't have reason to test my disguise, however, as Dad was long gone by the time I arrived downstairs. I had almost an hour before I had to head to the bus stop after getting ready, so I spent that time working on telekinesis and "Divine Speed". So many "Divine" this and "Godly" that… It would have been funny if it wasn't so frightening that I now had powers given to me by an _actual_ God.

In the end, I was able to learn how to switch on my super speed at will, and to levitate small objects without dropping them. Super speed was by far the most fun out of the powers I had used so far. I was able to zip up and down the stairs a few dozen times in less than a minute, all without breaking a sweat or needing to stop to catch my breath. Moving that fast felt pleasant, like a good stretch in bed just after waking up. I couldn't wait until I had time to cut loose! Telekinesis was amazing as well; thanks to superspeed and "Godly Mind" I was able to easily keep track of however many objects as I chose, and move around at will. At one point I had the entire contents of my backpack flying around me in a circle, orbiting me like satellites would a planet. I briefly used Illusions to actually transform my appearance in that of mighty Jupiter, and the floating pencils and notebooks transformed into its vast rings of particulate matter. I was somehow able to this complex illusionary tableau as if from the outside, which I suspect was due to the "God's Eyes" power I had taken. Using these powers was amazing, and I loved every minute of it.

In the end, I had to augment myself with a smidgen of super speed to catch my bus. Still, I barely made it, just managing to hop through the door as the large passenger vehicle pulled away from the curb. Brockton Bay didn't actually have proper school busses; rather, students were given passes which allowed us to ride the fairly robust public bus system that the city sported. The driver grumbled something at me as he turned to glare in my direction. When he saw me, however, his eyes bulged nearly out of his face, and his face turned bright red. Turning away from me to face the road, he muttered an apology. Wow! I hadn't been expecting that level of reaction. It was kind of creepy, actually, and a little bizarre... especially since the bus driver was almost as old as my dad. Several other people on the bus, including a few of my fellow students, hastily looked away as I walked down the aisle. It was as if they were afraid I would be angry at them for staring. One of the boys who was around my age studied me for a long moment. His eyes were nearly as wide was the bus drivers has been, and when realized that I had 'caught' him staring, he quickly turned to look out the window. I smirked, putting a little bit of sway into my hip as I walked; he had been pretty cute. There was an empty seat near the back, thankfully; I was grateful not to have to share with a stranger.

Before long we arrived at my school; Winslow Union High. Being inhumanly beautiful was becoming something of a disappointment beyond the initial rush I had felt upon seeing myself in the mirror. If people kept staring at me as intently as they did all throughout the bus ride then I would never be very inconspicuous; not a great thing for an aspiring hero. It was a very good thing, then, that I had taken the Illusionist power. At least with it there, I would have it available if I needed to hide or blend into a crowd. It didn't surprise me when I kept getting looks, glances, and outright stares as I entered the main building. The number of girls who were looking at me was surprising, though… Namely, all of them. I didn't think there was that many girls who swung for the other team at Winslow, so it was probably more akin to surprise and jealousy than anything like outright desire. I had never been very pretty, before, but now that I was a part of that elite club I was learning that there were as many hazards to being beautiful as there were to being plain… more, even!

In celebration of my powers, I had worn the most stylish clothing that I owned. Since the bullies really settled into their routine, I had been gradually gravitation toward drab colored, oversized clothing; that didn't leave me with a ton of choices now that I wanted to show off. Still, I had some things from the beginning of freshman year, which I had picked up before my social ostracism began. These clothes had been a little large at the time, which was paying off now, as with my new figure they fit like a charm. Well, almost… The shirt, which had been baggy toward the top, was now stretched fairly tightly around my substantially increased bust, causing it to ride up and expose a few inches of my completely flat midriff.

My old impulse would have been to wear anything else, as I hated to expose any part of my skin. Using my new super genius intellect, I had figure out that showing off like this would be a good thing. It was a statement to those who had once ridiculed me for having a little bit a fat on my tummy, and for every other inane insult. It said that I didn't have anything to fear from them anymore; there was nothing left to make fun of. I had thrown a new black denim jacket on over the shirt; it was the right size, which was everything positive I could say about the garment which I had hastily chosen a few weeks ago. The jacket would be going into my locker until it was time to leave school.

The bottom I had on was an old pair of jeans from last year. They were more than a little tight now, especially around my hips and backside, but they still fit. Since dad couldn't sew, I had further contributed to the fashion retardation I displayed to the rest of the freshman class last year by rolling up the legs of these jeans until they didn't drag on the ground. After my power-assisted growth spurt, though, they were just the right length. There was nothing to be done about my shoes, they were the same red converse allstars that I had purchased a few days ago during the last round of back to school shopping that I indulged in. They were the same kind of shoes that I had been wearing since I was a little kid; there had never been any real reason to switch to something different, and I quite liked them. Emma had teased me about wearing little kid shoes before, but discreetly glancing at my fellow students' feet as I walked the halls, I spotted seven other girls wearing allstars as well. It looked like they were making a comeback.

I stopped at my locker, dropping off the plain jacket, as well as a the text books I wouldn't need for my first few classes. As I was placing these things inside, I heard the voice of the person who I hated the most in the world; Emma. It was funny, but yesterday I didn't hate her. In fact, until this very moment, I hadn't realized the depth of loathing that I felt for the girl. Before my ascension, I had been curious about why she had betrayed me. I had also been scared of making her angrier, and most shamefully, deep inside I had thought there might someday be a chance of rebuilding our friendship. I could see now that these were all excuses which I had built up for my inaction; I had been so devastated by Emma's action toward me that I had clung to any excuse I could come up with, to justify simply doing nothing. Not so, any longer. Never again; I was _better_ than my ex-friend now. I would not be cowed or bullied by her any longer. I listened to just a few words of the poison coming out of her mouth before turning around to confront her.

"Wow, look at her being so bold! It looks like little Taylor's decided to-" Her crowd of cronies and minions would never learn what I had decided to do, at least not from Emma's mouth. When I finished turning around, my no longer best friend, and erstwhile tormentor was seemingly struck dumb by my appearance. The words she had been about to speak were stuck in her stupid throat, never to emerge.

I smiled at her, showing off my perfect teeth. I had never had any problems with my teeth before my transformation, but now they were so straight that they looked almost unreal, and so white that they literally sparkled in the light. "Oh, is that Emma Barnes? I remember you." I looked her up and down, my eyes giving me more information on her physical state than I knew what to do with. "You're certainly looking… plump today, Emma." The sound of my voice was as perfect as my physical features. When I giggled at my own joke, I was surprised to hear a few of Emma's lackeys laugh along with me. I didn't let my surprise show, maintaining a nearly emotionless facade the entire time.

Emma's face was flushed red, and her eyes wide. "Taylor…?" She half asked, half stated, a note of utter confusion in her voice. I glanced around surreptitiously, noting that Emma's thuggish lackey, Sophia Hess, was absent this time. I doubted that anyone else here would try to get physical with me, especially in light of Emma's floundering. I closed my locker, and giving my ex-friend a smirk, walked right past her. The crowd parted for me, people taking an unconscious step back in the face of my sheer magnificence. One of the girls in the crowd, I little blonde named Alice or Allison, or something like that, was staring at me intently, her cheeks bright red. I gave her a wink as I passed by, seeing her swallow nervously in response. I guess Winslow _did_ have a girl or two who batted for the other team after all. I wasn't interested in her or anything like that, but I took a mental note of her interest in case I needed to use it at some point in the future.

I guess I was being a little ruthless, but it was certainly better than going Carrie on their asses. One thought and I could summon the divine weapon I had chosen, or even my divine guardian, who was a giant monster who could breath out plasma beams that traveled at the speed of light. Fully realizing that being a complete bitch to these girls was the most merciful thing I could do in retaliation for their past actions made me feel a little better about the social engineering that I was putting into practice.

I was a probably ten feet from my locker when Emma finally worked up the gumption to respond to the little show that I had put on for her. "Don't you dare walk away from me!" She screamed, her voice filled with shock and outrage, mixed with what I suspected was more than a small amount of fear. She had let me set terms of our last encounter, and I had won it unequivocally. Now, in order to maintain her spot in the social hierarchy, she would have to show her followers that she was still the school's foremost alpha bitch. I smirked, continuing to walk away as if I hadn't heard her.

Soon enough, Emma's clumsy footfalls indicated that she was rapidly approaching. I activated the ocular power that I chosen, "God's Eyes", using it to peer through my own head, looking at her coming up behind me. Adding a bit of superspeed to my eyeballs, I rapidly looked through walls until I found what I was looking for.

It only took a few seconds to find exactly what I was looking for. 'Oh, yes.' I thought. 'That will do nicely.' I sped up very slightly, maintaining my lead on Emma. She couldn't actually run after me… not unless she wanted to look weak in front of her friends, so she had to keep to a walking pace. I had to keep walking too, for similar reasons, but due to my long legs and superior physical condition I was easily able to stay ahead of the short redhead.

I spun on my heel, taking a right into an adjacent hallway. I walked a few more feet, before stopping right in front of an open classroom door. It was time to set the scene. Turning around, I leaned up against the fully opened classroom door, quietly setting my backpack on the ground nearby. Emma quickly rounded the corner, and boy were her cheeks red! The expression she wore on her face was filled with anger and shame.

When she saw me standing there with my hand in front of my face, casually examining my fingernails for imperfections, she glared at me murderously. A few of her cronies were beginning to approach now, thought her entourage contained fewer than half of the people it did previously. It made me a little giddy when I realized that the plan that I'd thrown together on the way to school was working so much better than I thought it would. I gazed at the fuming teenager dispassionately, my upper back barely touching the open door behind me as I leaned back, my every action screaming nonchalance.

The incandescent redhead stomped up to me, stopping less than a foot away from where I stood. I looked up from my nails, appearing utterly unphased by her naked aggression. There was every indications that I was _much_ more concerned with the state of my perfectly manicured nails than I was with her. I had carefully crafted this tableau to make Emma completely lose her shit... and it was working beautifully.

I looked up, peering at her over my still outstretched hand as if surprised. I blinked, looking at her with a serene expression on my face while I watched her stand there fuming. Emma's breath was coming out somewhat raggedly; I _had_ been walking rather fast, after all. I pretended to have just noticed her. "Oh, it's _you_ again." I said, in an ultra sweet tone. "Did you need something, Jenna?" I asked, confusion clearly present in my voice. One of the girls standing behind her snickered, causing the short redhead to tense up even further. She was losing them.

"It's _Emma_ , you bitch!" She snarled, flecks of spittle flying from her mouth. ' _Oh my_ ,' I thought, 'She's really getting worked up.'

"No one walks away from me!" The girl standing in front of me exclaimed passionately. "Especially not _you_!" Her voice was more of a screech than a scream, and several of the onlooker, both Emma's crowd, as well as passersby, flinched.

I smirked. "Well, Edna," I began, but was cut off.

"Emma!" She screamed, enraged. There were more giggles, several this time, and I could see the crowd edging away from the furious little ginger. They were starting to gravitate toward the other side of the hall. I realized that these girls really were like wild animals; they could sense when their leader had bitten off more than she could chew, and they were preemptively separating themselves from her to avoid the inevitable fallout. God, it was wonderful to be so smart, and to have so much general knowledge. The world in general, and social interactions specifically just made so much _sense_ now!

"Whatever." I said absently, buffing my nails on my blouse. "Anyway, I have no clue why you keep following me around. I think that we might have hung out a few times when we were little kids, but that was years ago, and I've moved on since then. I'm really sorry, but I don't have a place in my social circle for you right now, Emily. I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings, but I just have too much to do to take on a new project-err, friend right now." Oh, shit! I didn't realize that it was possible to get that red. The curvy little shit looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

Emma let out an inarticulate cry of rage, and launched herself at me, trying to tackle me or something. Limiting myself to speeds plausible for a normal human being, I danced out of the way sideways, exposing the door behind me. Emma was going to fast and moving far too recklessly to abort her hasty attack, and despite her best efforts her head and right hand slammed into the door with a hollow cracking sound, like two coconuts being struck against each other.

There was a very good reason why I had chosen to have my confrontation here, in front of this particular classroom. I had seen a group of talking inside of this room, which included Principal Blackwell, my favorite teacher, Gladys Knott, as well as three men in sharp-looking business suits. I had been tracking them them the entire time, and all of them were walking toward the door as soon as Emma started screaming. Several of them were peering out the doorway for the last part of the confrontation, causing quite a few people who had been in the crowd to disperse. Emma, lost in her anger, had never noticed their approach.

Principal Blackwall was walking toward Emma angrily, her mouth opened to speak, when the little redhead decided that it was good idea to charge my ass like a fucking bull. The principal, as well as one of the suited men, stared at her in horror as I flowed out of the way. Wincing when her head impacted the door hard enough to rattle the frame. I stared at Emma in undisguised shock, never imagining that she would do something like _that_. I figured she might throw a punch or slap me, but this was insane!

"Oh, my God!" I cried, staring down at the crumpled form of Emma Barnes. Sure, she was a piece of shit traitor, but I didn't want something like that to happen to her. I had been counting on at least a suspension, as I knew that she couldn't keep her mouth shut, but at most I had expected her to get expelled for attacking me, not to get her head rammed into a solid wood door.

Several of Emma's "friends" were standing there, expressions of shock on their faces, a few even crying out in shock. A few more had blank looks on their faces, though one girl in the back tried to hide a smirk by placing her hand over her mouth, as if she was covering up a gasp or a frown. I made a note to remember her face, as that was a strange reaction to an event like this. Principal Blackwell was looking at the knocked out girl in shock, her eyes narrowed and her face set in a stern frown; in short, her regular expression. One of suits was kneeling down, his hand lightly touching the side of Emma's neck, the other reaching into his pocket for a cellphone.

I could see through his hand and the back of the phone's case, that he was dialing 911. He spoke into the receiver, giving the name and address of the school, and then performing a few steps that the operator asked him to. I just stood there, in the middle of the hall, right where I had moved to in order to avoid Emma's attack. Five minutes or more must have passed, and the school nurse was not tending to the fallen bully, when Mrs. Blackwell walked up to me, standing by my side.

I was surprised to discover that this woman, who had seemed quite tall last year, was now a little shorter than me. "Mrs. Hebert," she said quietly. "I need you to come into the classroom, there. I would like to speak with you privately." I nodded, and followed her into the same classroom that she had emerged from moments earlier. It was one of the computer labs, the one that I didn't have classes in. It looked like the computers were set up for CAD, or computer aided drafting, and there was a massive printer in the corner. A plotter, my new knowledge base supplied; a special type of printer used to generate oversized pictures and blueprints. I guess this would be the drafting lab, then.

"Ms. Hebert, can you please tell me how the… _event_ that I just witnessed in the hallway came about?" She asked, her voice filled with discontent. In the past I might have been concerned, but now, not so much. I had had at least a dozen student witnesses, as well as five adults. It was clear that I was in no way at fault for Emma's stupidity, and if Blackwell somehow tried to make it my fault, I would get a lawyer and sue Winslow into the ground.

"Emma started talking to me earlier this morning, while I was putting some things away in my locker, but she was acting really funny. She kept looking at me oddly, and trailing off when she tried to speak. It was really weird, so I left as quickly as I could. She followed me down the hallway, and confronted me outside of this room."

I paused, examining the administrator to see if she was buying it. Blackwell had a frown on her face, but it looks like it was a concerned frown, rather than a "fucking liar" frown. "We haven't been friends for a really long time, so I have no idea why she was even talking to me… We haven't even spoken since before the last school year ended. I tried to tell her nicely that I'm not really interested in being friends with her any more, and then she went crazy for some reason, and tried to attack me! I didn't want to get tackled, or whatever she was planning to do to me, so I moved out of the way, and she slammed into the door... "

I looked down, a sad expression on my face. I created the illusion of a tear forming in my eye, and then running down my cheek. "Is she going to be OK?" I asked, my voice cracking.

Blackwell looked uncomfortable, and had her hand on her forehead, as if she was fighting off a headache. She sighed, and then answered my question. "I don't know, Ms. Hebert. It was a pretty nasty impact. Nurse Esperanza is an RN, so she has quite a bit of training; she will take good care of Ms. Barnes until the ambulance gets here."

She lightly patted me on the shoulder with her cold, bony hand, before walking toward the door. I followed her. "Now, please get to your first class, Ms. Hebert. I don't have a note on me, but you can tell your first period teacher that there was an accident, and that you had to speak with me afterward."

"Alright," I said, my voice glum. It didn't appear that Blackwell was going to punish me for this one, or try to make it somehow my fault. We split up at the door, each of us heading off in different directions. Emma was no longer on the ground, though there was a small bloodstain on the door, which had dribbled down onto the plain white tiling beneath my feet.

I wondered if the strangely cordial interaction I had with the principal just a moment ago was due to my new appearance, or because I knew how to communicate with people much more easily now. Probably both, I decided as I walked to my first class of the day. It was computers with Mrs. Knott, so she wouldn't be asking me for a note or excuse, as she had been there as well. I held back my desire to smile or start whistling as I entered my computers class, holding my exuberance in until later.

Sure, I was a tiny bit upset that Emma had cracked her head, but it's not like she didn't deserve it, or that it wasn't her own fault. Overall, though, I was very satisfied with what had happened in the hallway. No matter what happened from here, the little bitch who had made an entire year of my life pure torment would know that she could no longer fuck with me with impunity. Before I sat down at my computer station, I gave the entire school another quick scan with my amazing new eyes, peering through people and solid walls, taking in everything.

'What is that?' I thought, as I focused on something strange outside on the school grounds, outside of the gymnasium. I watched as a roughly human-shaped cloud of smoke shifted through the outer wall of the building, emerging in the girl's locker room. It was one of the Wards, I realized, the new one; Shadow Stalker, I thought her name was. I hadn't realized that a Ward went to school here before now.

The costumed hero looked around the empty area, before bolting the door leading into the locker room. She turned into smoke again, and then phased her arm through one of the inner walls, pulling out a bundled set of clothing, including shoes. I absently booted up my computer, simultaneously watching the screen and observing the cape in the girls locker room. When the "hero" removed her mask, I froze up in shock, my fingers twitching in barely controlled fury, as I fought to stop myself from reacting to this new revelation in a more overt manner. I kept my eyes locked onto her as she changed, my anger growing exponentially by the second.

The runner up for the position of "biggest bitch" in my life, Sophia Hess, was evidently a parahuman. Not only that, but she was supposed to be a fucking _hero_ as well, and a member of the Protectorate Wards team. I shuddered in hatred, the urge to speed down to the locker room and bisect her with a lightsaber so intense that I could almost taste it. It would not help my plans if I killed her, I forced myself to acknowledge, it would do little more than to make my life harder. I struggled with my anger for a few more minutes, before mastering myself.

I watched Sophia walk to her next class, my God's eye tracking her every movement, while my Godly Mind sped through the implications of my tormentor's parahumanity. In rapid succession, I realized that her powers were the reason for the missing books and for the staff refusing to listen to my complaints involving her; they had to be aware of her status. My eyes narrowed as I remembered my mother's flute disappearing one day, just after I had bought a new padlock for my locker. I recalled finding it, my prized posession covered in substances so nasty that I still didn't like to think about it. When I returned with paper towels and a bag to carry it home in, the flute was once again gone.

The next expression to cross my face was not a frown, a grimace, or even a look of rage, but a serene smile. Sophia had used her superpowers to ruin my life for a full school year, and had she had not suffered a single iota for it. Behavior like that simply could not be excused, especially amongst those who wielded powers beyond those of normal men and women. I don't know if she understood just how much torment she has caused me, just how much I had suffered over losing my mother's flute alone, but she would.

Sophia _would_ learn to suffer, though, because it was her karma to be paid back threefold for the bullshit she had put me through. She had completely ruined my freshman year in highschool, and in return for that, and in accordance with the rules of karma, I would ruin _three_ of hers. It was just good fortune that both she and I had three more years left in the same high school. I smiled as I imagined the different ways that I could torment her using my powers. It might be a little petty to do so, but it was certainly petty of her to start it in the first place. It wasn't like I was planning to devote a large amount of my time to her, either; a little nudge here, and a tiny push there would be enough to ensure that she got her just deserts.

 **.** **.** **.**

The morning passed me by in a blur, with the lunch break swiftly arriving. I found myself ravenous, as if I hadn't eaten in days. I headed to the cafeteria, in order to buy some overpriced slop to tide me over until I got home. Earlier, I had considered the possibility of a fight, as my rapidly growing lip reading skills had informed me that rumors of me sending Emma to the hospital were traveling through the school like wildfire. Thankfully, Sophia had been pulled aside by a member of the staff, who I'm fairly sure told her that Emma was injured. She left soon after, once again changing into her superhero guise in the locker room and leaving through the solid wall.

As I lip read during my classes, I had been equal parts flattered and embarrassed to hear many of the guys, and even a few girls whispering to each other about "the tall hottie with curly hair" or "the brunette goddess". My favorite part of the day so far, was between periods three and four, when a tiny blushing freshman had told me "Sorry, my Lady." when he found himself blocking my path. It was so adorable that I had to force myself not to pinch his cheek and coo.

Outside of the lunchroom, I gathered my courage, and used it to reforge myself into solid steel. Walking into the cafeteria regally, I gazed around, eyeing my classmates critically. Conversations quieted or halted as I made my way to the line and picked up a tray. Nearly everyone had their eye on my at one time or another, and if I hadn't been expecting it, the entire thing would have been extremely unnerving. I grabbed two slices of pepperoni pizza, a carton of vitamin D milk, a chicken caesar salad that didn't look too bad, and two m&m cookies. I paid for my lunch at the counter, and then went to find somewhere to eat.

The girl who had blushed at me in the hallway near my locker, Alice, or Allison, waved at me was I walked by her, so I gave her a smile and a wave back. This made her to blush again, nearly causing me to giggle at her embarrassed expression. A dark-haired girl sitting next to the bright red blonde whispered something in her ear, after which her cheeks burned even brighter. I chuckled to myself as I sat down at an empty table. I prepared to eat, opening my milk carton, and drizzling caesar dressing over my salad. As I started to dig in, I saw a familiar face standing nearby, seemingly waiting for me to acknowledge her presence.

It was the girl who had snickered at Emma's little spill in the hallway. I didn't really recall her name, as I don't think she went to Winslow for her freshman year. Now that I knew a little about how social dynamics worked, I was determined to use that information to become unassailable. That meant forging friendships, or at least alliances. Looking back with the perspective that I now had, I knew that it would have been totally impossible for Emma and Sophia to treat me the way they had if I had been part of anyone's social circle. I had basically been cut off from society, making me a valid target for literally whatever they wanted to do to me. It was really fucked up, but human beings don't really care about people who aren't part of their "monkey circle". Well, here was my first opportunity to build my own group.

I smiled at the girl, giving her a quick once over with my eye power. She was a latina of medium height for our age, maybe 5'3 or so. Her hair was black, and had a slight wave in it, and it reached nearly to her knees. She wasn't fat, or even chubby, really, but she thick, with powerful looking arms and legs. Her torso was also a little wider than average, and rather well muscled as well. She had friendly looking face, with a wide smile. The only physical feature she had that really stood out was her enormous breasts. They were easily the biggest that I had seen on a girl our age, being nearly as big around as her head. After my transformation my own breasts were nothing to sneeze at, but they were still at least two or three cup sizes smaller than this girl's. I fought down a surge of envy; I really wouldn't want mine to be that big, anyway. Besides, I was still larger than Emma, and that was what really mattered in the end.

"Hi," I said, smiling at the girl, "Do you want to sit down?" I asked, nodding to the chair beside mine.

"Thanks!" She chirped, taking the offered seat. Her voice was very high pitched, making her sound much younger than she actually was. "I'm Cammy, by the way. I'm new to the city, never even been out of Texas before until my mom up and moved us here out of the blue 'cause of her new job." She spoke quite rapidly, using a lot of gestures to emphasize her words.

"It's nice to meet you Cammy. I'm Taylor. I've lived in the Bay for all of my life; it's not the most wonderful place to live, but there is definitely some good thing to go along with the bad." I gave her a big grin as I spoke, trying my best to make a good impression.

"What, like getting to see random dumb-bitch gingers headbut doors?" She asked. Her face sported a huge, shit eating grin.

I couldn't help but bust into a fit of giggles that stole my breath away. I laughed so hard that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I noticed that the people eating at tables nearby were also laughing at Cammy's comment. Was our conversation so interesting that they all had been listening in?

"Yeah," I said, my laughter dying down. "That's definitely one of the perks of living in Brockton Bay." All of the stress I had been carrying up until now had melted away, and I felt lighter than air. I had definitely needed a good laugh.

"What's the deal between you and her, anyway? She was acting like you were supposed to be kissing the ground she walks on, and you didn't seem to give two shits about her." I noted that Cammy had a gift for "cutting the bullshit", as my Dad's friend Kurt used to say. I like direct people. Direct is good.

"Emma Barnes is a complete and utter bitch." I said, returning her compliment of speaking to me in a straightforward manner by doing likewise. "She and her buddy Sophia Hess treated me like crap all last year, and I was dumb enough to let them get away with it." I frowned, lowering my voice for this next part. "Emma used to be a good friend of mine, pretty much all throughout my childhood. We were like sisters. Then suddenly, I came back from summer camp the summer before our freshman year, and she wouldn't give me the time of day. She had this new friend, Sophia, and I apparently she didn't like me, and avoided me all summer. When we started school here, Emma and her new buddy started trashing my books and stealing my stuff… the worst part was that they're both such good liars that none of the teachers believed they did it. Part of that is my fault, I guess, because I really didn't work that hard to get them in trouble."

Cammy's eyes were wide, and she looked faintly horrified. "Those utter cunts!" She hissed.

I nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Anyhow, my looks came in over the summer, as well as some more brains, I guess, and I decided that I wasn't going to take any more of their shit, ever again. So when Emma started up with me today, I treated her like the nonentity that she is, and that apparently pissed her off mightily. You saw the rest."

She grinned again. "You bet I did, Tay! You're really fast, you know, to dodge her the way you did. Have you ever thought about going out for sports? Maybe track?"

I snorted. "Emma's buddy Sophia is the track team's star athlete, and she hates my guts. Emma usually tries to hurt people with words, today was the first time I've ever seen her get physical, but Sophia is pretty much a sociopath. She was alway pushing me, or trying to trip me down the stairs." I frowned, thinking about the bully who was secretly a fucking _hero_. I wondered if the Wards knew what kind of shit she got up to. "Last year I saw Sophia mop the floor with a big senior guy, who was maybe 6'4 and 250 pounds; she totally kicked his ass, using some kind of martial arts moves. If I tried to join track, then it would be less than a week before I'd have an 'accident' that would hurt me bad enough that I would have to quit the team."

"That's bullshit," grumbled Cammy, "how the hell does she get away with that shit? If someone tried that kind of shit in Houston, then everyone else would gang up on them until they stopped."

"I don't know." I said, shrugging. "Maybe the school just doesn't want to lose their star athlete. Whatever it is, it's bullshit, and I'm not going to take it anymore. The next time she tries to touch me, or if I see her trying to bully anyone else, I'm going to do whatever it takes to stop her." My eyes had gone hard halfway through my impromptu vow, and Cammy shivered dramatically when I finished talking.

"Burr! You're hardcore, Tay. But, if she was able to kick your ass all around the schoolyard last year, how do you plan to make her stop?" She seemed genuinely curious, there was no taunting at all in her voice.

I shrugged. "Like I said, last year I let them get away with it." I trailed off, my eyes becoming glassy, as my brain took me to unpleasant places. "My mom died about a year and a half ago, and Emma was my only close friend at the time. She really helped me get through the whole deal, so it was really fucking nuts when she suddenly turned on me. I guess part of me wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, to see if she would stop acting like an asshole... or at least tell me why she had started treating me like garbage." I frowned. "Sophia might know martial arts, but so do I. I started studying after my mom died, and it really helped with the grieving process. I just never… had the will to use it against anyone before, I guess."

Cammy smiled. "So, basically what you're saying is that if Sophia starts some shit, you're going to finish it?" She asked.

I smiled. "Pretty much. I have no ideas how I would do against her, or what style she knows, so we'll have to see. But one thing is for sure… I'm not going to take shit from anyone, not ever again."

 **.** **.** **.**

Lunch ended soon enough, and my new (acquaintance? friend?) and I split up and headed off to our respective afternoon classes. Cammy and I had compared schedules, and unfortunately we didn't have a single class in common. That was alright; we could always hang out during lunch or after school. I had high hopes for this development; after Emma, my ability to trust others had been all but shattered, but being flooded with a small fraction of the combined knowledge of mankind, as well as having all areas of my intellect turned up to insane levels had improved my sense of perspective. Sure, Emma was a piece of shit human being, but my new knowledge and brainpower told me that most people actually weren't, surprisingly.

According to the information swimming through my head, the majority of people based their decisions in life on whether performing a given action would help them or hurt them, and if it was consistent with their morals and self image. Looking back, even though the "old Emma" would have had acted the way she did these days, I could see that she had never possessed a strong moral sense, or a consistent self image. Often times, I would have to act as the moral compass and the voice of reason when she idly considered doing things that would be hurtful to others, or even dangerous. I remember having to talk her out of teasing a boy in grade school because he always wore shabby clothes, and another instance when she wanted to dye her hair black and wear white makeup in middle school because there was a goth boy she liked.

Suddenly the fact that she turned on me started making more sense. Emma was mutable. Before, she had always had me by her side to keep her from making bad choices, but this was no longer the case. In fact, it was the direct opposite; I expected that Sophia was whispering poison into her ear, and that Emma, with her non-existent sense of self-image, had been doing her best to change herself into the track star's pet psychopath in order to impress or emulate her. Sophia must have made a very strong impression on her, when they met...

I had another epiphany; Emma must know that Sophia is a parahuman. Meeting Shadow Stalker, a real live cape, was probably the most impressive thing that the little redhead had ever experienced in her life. I could see it; them meeting in some dramatic manner, and Emma doing everything she could to impress and draw the attention of the psychopath. Of course she would want to "trade up" when it came to friends and role models. When your choice consists of either a nerdy bookworm with an overinflated moral sense, and a edgy superhero who lets you do whatever you want, what choice was there, especially for a girl like Emma? I played back the memory of my first meeting with Sophia Hess, when I went to visit my (at the time) best friend, after returning from Nature camp. Thanks to my mental upgrade, my memories were clearer, but they weren't perfect… That was a power that I hadn't chosen to get.

One main thing stood out in regards to the encounter, now that I understood child psychology and game theory; Sophia had been testing me. She had given me ample opportunity to respond to her strange accusation that I was "weak", and after she pushed me the first time, she had stopped, waiting to see what I would do. I had, of course, looked to Emma, trying to figure out why this aggressive, pushy bitch was at her house... Why she was letting this bitchy new girl get away with treating her best friend like shit. I had recoiled upon seeing the disappointed look in Emma's eyes, mistaking it for contempt. Now that I knew what to look for, and could read expressions, at least a to a degree, I understood the truth; she had been disappointed that I hadn't fought back, proven that I was strong.

It appeared that Sophia had some kind of Nietzsche-esque obsession with the concept of "strength". Reviewing our past encounters, it was evident that she correlated "strength" with someone's will and ability to inflict harm on others, and conversely, the capability and drive to resist the attacks done to you. Of course someone a pedantic and thuggish as Sophia wouldn't appreciate any of the more understated kinds of "strength". I had soldier on after my mother died, only breaking down in the privacy of my own room, late at night.

The only person who I had ever shared that weakness with was Emma, naively believing that I could trust her with that information. How wrong I had been! I had never really _known_ Emma, I guess… I just had a concept of her, an idea of a person who didn't actually exist. Because that's what she was; the mere idea of a person, only given form when under the influence of others. Thanks to the general knowledge implanted in my head by "Godly Mind", I knew a little bit about a lot of things now, and the revelation of Emma's true character was reminding me of a specific type of parahuman power, now that I thought about it. She was a like a "projection", a type of mental construct given physical form, which some capes could generate. She didn't truly "exist" as a complete person, unless someone imposed their will upon her.

Another type of "strength" that Sophia knew nothing about was strength of character; in any given situation, I always did my best to stick to my morals and do the right thing. One of the myriad reasons I hadn't ever slapped a bitch, and hard, was that I believed that violence was a last resort, which should ideally only ever be used in the true defense of yourself or others. Tripping and shoving was inconvenient, but Sophia had never outright attacked me… if she had, then she would have been treated to the full fury of my ability to physically retaliate. Until this morning, it likely wouldn't have been much, but there would have been no holding me back. I wondered idly what she would have thought of that… but honestly, at this point, I didn't really care.

I was still planning on fucking with her, that's for sure, but now that I knew who she was and had a good idea of what her powers did, she was practically a bug to me. I hadn't purchased the "Shadow Form" power with my points, but the God I'd met had given it to me as a personal gift, along with the "Portals Maker" power. I could only guess at the reasons behind the inscrutable being offering me yet more power, on top of what I had already been given, but there had to be a reason.

I wondered if Sophia Hess had factored into God's gifts in any way, considering the similarities between my "Shadow Form" and her own parahuman ability. I didn't know if Shadow Stalker could go completely invisible like my own version of our shared ability allowed me to, or if her form was also perfectly incorporeal. Probably not. Unlike my own divine gifts, my general knowledge informed me, parahuman powers usually contained some kind of proviso or weakness. This allowed opponents who were knowledgeable or clever to defeat nearly any cape, given time and/or the right equipment or powerset. Cape fights were a strange game of rock, paper scissors, and no one quite knew who would come out on top, or how useful a given power was until it was tested. Even extremely strong capes could sometimes be taken out by seemingly weak ones, due to the various mechanics of superpower interactions.

My powers were conceptual, however, and were not rooted in the physics and the regular rules of the universe, like parahuman powers seemed to be. This, and the sheer amount and diversity of my powers, gave me an advantage against all but the strongest capes. I didn't think Sophia Hess was all that much to worry about, but I still didn't plan to tackle her head-on. I wasn't going to play into her stereotypical "strong/weak" paradigm by beating the tar out of her, unless she forced me to do so. I just planned to make her life a living hell, as she had done to me. Now that I'm acquainted with philosophy, I know that the best revenge is living well, but I've never been very good at backing down from a given task once I've committed to it.

I planned to start my crusade against Ms. Hess by paying her back in kind for some of this shit that she pulled on me last year. Of course, I'm not going to simply ape the same out shit she's been pulling on me all along. I'm going to get… creative. My mother was an creative writing teacher at the local state university, and my father is a dyed in the wool, science fiction and fantasy book reading, paper and pen role-playing game Geek, with a capital "G"; I come by my massive creative streak honestly, though like all of my mental faculties it's been massively enhanced thanks to Godly Mind.

 **.** **.** **.**

I smiled, walking out of my last class, into the hallway. Neither one of my primary bullies had returned to school today, giving me carte blanche to begin my campaign of revenge. I walked into the nearest empty girl's room, taking a stall. I made sure that no one was here beforehand, using the bullshit power that is God's Eyes; so far, I had gotten more use out of this power than everything else combined, save for Godly Mind, which was more a part of my being now than a normal superpower. I concentrated on turning invisible and intangible, fighting the urge to use illusions to accomplish the first part. Huh, I didn't know before now that I could use illusion to make things invisible… That could be handy. After a few moments, I felt "Shadow For" kick in, causing me to disappear from sight.

Ghosting through the walls, passing through pipes and electrical and data wiring, I soon emerged from the wall in the hallway where the majority of student lockers were located. I quickly found Sophia's, and stuck my head inside. Thanks to my overpowered eyes, I could see the contents of her locker perfectly. I was still getting the hang of using this new power, though, and my head accidently passed through the back of her locker, giving me a nice view into the hollow wall behind it. 'Hello there!' I thought, spying the rough costume and pair of mini crossbows that I found there. Upon closer inspection, there was also a pair of cheap "burner" cell phones, still in box, and a quiver of hunting arrows.

I goggled at her stupidity, wondering what kind of mental illness she possessed, to leave evidence like this here, where someone might find it. All it would take would be a burst pipe, or some unscheduled maintenance to uncover her secret to the whole world! My stomached dropped out on my when I considered what the broadhead hunting arrows meant… The items in wall behind her locker weren't that dusty, meaning it hadn't been long since Sophia had last handled them. What would a government sanctioned superhero need with ammunition which was almost assuredly lethal? I most definitely did not like the reasons that my mind came up.

In the face of this new development I immediately scrapped all of my plans for petty personal vengeance against Sophia. This was much more important; people's lives were potentially at stake. I would need to contact someone trustworthy in the PRT or the Protectorate to let them know what I had found. By necessity, I would have to hide my identity in such a manner that the government couldn't or wouldn't uncover who I really was; that meant reporting this issue as a cape. Being "moderately learned" in parahuman knowledge included something called the "Unwritten Rules", a set of loose guidelines which many capes, and usually the PRT, chose to mostly abide by. The most serious of these rules was an edict against knowingly uncovering capes' identities. I would use these rules to protect my anonymity.

It would definitely be best to hide the extent of my powers and abilities as much as I could when I introduced myself to the PRT. Also, I definitely shouldn't tell them why I had been looking through Sophia's locker… if they found out that I had a personal vendetta against her, and the means to plant the items in the wall myself, then my credibility would be worthless with them. I would seem like either an attention seeker at best, and just another villain attempting to take out a very effective Ward at worst.

I could have, and really _should_ _have_ just scanned Sophia's locked with my eye powers, before I ever decided to come near it. That should probably be my angle… I could present myself as a "Thinker" type cape, with several useful enhancements to my vision, including seeing through walls. I would need to make up some fake limitation on God's eyes, to make it seem like I couldn't just ID other capes at will, or else they would extremely wary of me. I plumbed the depths of my parahuman knowledge, before coming up with the perfect cover; the so-called "Manton Limit". It was the technical term for the reason parahuman powers usually worked on either the cape's own body, other people's bodies, or only non-living materials. It was thought to be a sort of built-in "safety feature" of some powers, presumably to prevent them from harming the wielder. Looking at it from a logical standpoint, the Manton limit was bullshit, but there was enough evidence to support the theory. Parahumans were really strange.

Thinking over my cape persona, I decided to tell whichever agent or hero that I met with that I was a "grab bag" cape, a rare variety of parahuman that had several powers, usually low level ones, instead of one all-encompassing powerset. My cape knowledge indicated that grab bag capes usually had at least one power associated with "pocket dimensions", or something similar, so I would need to decide if I wanted to reveal my portals maker ability. It's mechanics were such that I could create up to eight ports at a time, and entering any of them would allow someone to emerge from any other. The portals' seemingly arbitrary limit of only allowing organic matter fit in nicely with the "Manton Limit" pap as well, making it look more like a "real" parahuman power. I suddenly wondered if _this_ was why the God had gifted me the abilities to make portals… Was it to make me seem more like a genuine parahuman, rather than a Demigod? Hmm… I would need to mull that over at a later time.

I quickly decided on my "grab bag" powerset. I would include my portal ability in there, but I was planning to _massively_ undersell its potency. I would also give them some of the details on my ocular power, and tell them that I was capable of low level regenerative healing. I might also mention that I had enhanced reflexes and a weak, close-range telekinetic ability, but only if I needed to for some reason, or if I had to use those powers in front of the official. I would probably be considered quite able for a grab bag cape, but not at the same power level of a cape like Myrddin, for instance. The leader of the Chicago Protectorate team was sometimes listed under the "grab bag" classification, as he had several different types of pocket dimension-based powers that he could call upon.

 **.** **.** **.**

I chuckled as I covertly exited the school building while still in shadow form. One unexpected sub-power of being intangible and invisible was that I could fly, something that the power's description didn't mention. It didn't take long to discover how to augment the slow shadow flight with my Telekinesis, and soon enough I was streaking through the air, heading toward a nearby shopping center. As I flew, I examined every inch of the terrain I passed by, inside buildings and outside. This was surprisingly easy to do using God's eyes and a small application of Divine speed. I discovered, to my surprise, that my eyes were capable of seeing out to a huge distance... I was able to see several miles away, as I could make out roads and stands of trees which were far outside the city. I was suddenly glad that I had picked God's eyes… I had almost dropped it in favor of gaining a perfect memory.

It didn't take long to accomplish my first goal for the afternoon. I had been busily looking at everything I could with my bullshit eye with the express purpose of finding some money. I had found a few gang stashes, which were always guarded, and peered at the contents of a few personal safes and strongboxes, but that wasn't what I was after; I wanted money that no one would miss. Eventually, I found it. Under about four feet of soil, at the base of a huge oak tree in one of Brockton Bay's city parks, I spied an old duffel bag which contained several bundled stacks of bills. 'Jackpot!' I thought. The bag was starting to decay in spots, and looked thoroughly filthy. It had obviously been in the ground for years. Thankfully, the money was triple wrapped, firstly by the bag, then by a canvas sack, and finally, each bundled stack of bills was encased in cellophane.

The tree was deep in the park, about fifty feet from a remote jogging trail. I didn't want to have to dig it out, so I simply phased in the ground, and attempted to grab the handle. I found out just how bullshit my shadow form power was, when the bag also became incorporeal, allowing me to simply pull it out of the ground, sans dirt. Grinning invisibly like some kind of superpowered lunatic, I flew through the air, looking for someplace quiet where I could relax and take stock of my sack full of filthy lucre in peace.

I returned to my normal state on the top story of an empty building near the docks. The interior was mostly empty, save for a lot of old office desks and chairs. Most of them were piled up against one of the walls, but there were a few scattered here and there. I took a seat in front of a large executive-style desk, and emptied the contents of the bag onto the surface. There were twenty cellophane bundles in the bag, and when I took them apart, I found that each of the packages contained five separate banded stacks of twenty dollar bills. I double and triple counted; there were one hundred stacks of bills in total. The band on each stack was made of plain white paper, and hand written on each of them in black ink was "$2000".

I blinked my eyes, and then blinked them again. On the desk, in front of me, was more money than I could easily conceive of; much more than anyone in my family had ever had before in their lives. I was the proud owner of two hundred thousand dollars... one fifth of a million bucks. It felt both unreal and exciting at the same time, as if I was tingling while floating on air. I had hoped to find a few twenties, or something like that, so that I could buy a burner phone. That was my next stop, in fact. I had never imagined in my wildest imagination that I would stumble upon something like _this_. I laughed, my voice echoing through the empty building, wondering what I should do with this obscene amount of cash.

For now, I simply decided that I would take it with me. I would figure out the rest later. I was able to cram the stacks into my backpack, which was mostly empty. I had taken a queue from Shadow Stalker and stashed my textbooks under the school's floor, in a disused ventilation duct, which looked like it belonged to a heating and cooling system which was no longer in use. I used my shadow form to fuse the bag and wrapping material into the cement floor of the office building, permanently bonding it to the materials there to dispose of the evidence of my ill gotten gains. For now, I would mostly stick to my plans, though there would be a few modifications to them.

First, I needed to buy a costume. I could make myself look like anything I wanted using the power of illusions, but I didn't know how well that would hold up to cameras and the like, or what would happen if I was knocked unconscious or lost concentration. This meant that my costume didn't need to be flashy, but that I would most assuredly require one. I would forgo buying expensive protective items until I could find out just how durable I was now, and how well my regeneration worked. If I was as invulnerable as I hoped, then simple cloth would hopefully be enough. I would have to make sure that every part of my costume was made of organic materials, due to my portals limitations, so something like cotton or silk would be the order of the day. I should most likely disguise myself with an illusion over a mask when I made my purchases, just in case someone was able to identify what I was doing; prudence was the order of the day when it came to secret identities. Capes and those associated with them might usually play by the unwritten rules, but no one else did.

It was the work of seconds to transform the hideous denim jacket I loathed into a mask which obscured my face and hair. The illusion I layer on top of my actual appearance was that of a slightly larger man, with a similar body type. On top of that, I placed another illusion, this one of a tall, overweight female senior citizen with conservative upper middle class clothing. My disguise as good as I could make it, I went shopping. I popped into "Cells, Cells, and more Cells!" A mobile phone and electronics depot off of the boardwalk. I picked up three super cheap burner phones that each came preloaded with 500 minutes of talk time, or 1000 text message, and a fairly expensive non-contract smartphone with an unlimited talk, text, and data plan that I could pay for by the month using easily purchased refill cards.

It took me a few minutes to fly over to Lord's Market, a different shopping center. Once there, I changed my outermost illusionary disguise again, this time into a working class man who dressed like a dockworker. Due to my dad's profession, I had spent a lot of time around dockworkers, so this illusion was even better than the last. I picked up a large assortment of cotton and silk garments, a few cotton wraps and shawls, and a voluminous silk robe. I also purchased several yards of cotton and silk fabrics in various colors and patterns. When I was done, I was glad for my telekinesis, as I would have been able to carry everything without it. I appeared to carry the shopping bags with my hands, but actually levitated them.

 **.** **.** **.**

Finished with the day's errands, I went invisible in an empty alleyway after checking for observers, and only dropped my illusions and unwrapped my face once I was far away from the marketplace. I quickly flew home, phasing through the outer wall of my bedroom to get inside. I used superspeed to hide the money and cellphones, which were all still packaged. It was 4:46 according to my watch, which meant that all of my errands and after school activities combined had only taken an hour and a half. Taking the bus, I usually didn't arrive home until a little after four o'clock, so I had performed all of my tasks extremely quickly. I was beginning to realize just how amazing having these powers actually was.

My dad usually didn't get off of work until five thirty or six, and from there it took him about thirty or forty minutes to drive home from the Dockworkers Union. That meant I had about at least and hour to an hour and a half to work on my costume. I started working on it right away at superspeed, matching together the various articles of clothing with each other to try and find something that looked at least decent. I did the best I could with the limited materials I had, and I'd like to think the results of my super speedy sewing was alright, at least for a starter costume.

I had purchased a few cotton head covers, of the type typically worn by muslim women, the ones with full veils. I started with one of those, in a deep blue, and re-worked it into something that looked like a cross between a burqa head covering and a ninja mask, using some cotton duck in the same color to shape the "mask" portion. I replacing the mesh netting meant to go over the eyes with some extremely thin light-blue cotton, creating a full face mask which completely covered my head.

I had chosen a plain long sleeved tunic in white which went down slightly below my waist, though it was tucked into another garment that had made the final cut. On my lower half was a pair of wide, flowing martial arts pants, which the vendor had called a hakama. These pants were also white, and they were constructed out of thick woven cotton, with reinforced areas on the knees and hips. Over top of it all, I wore a real silk kimono that I had paid far too much for. It was blue, matching the color of my mask, and had had stylized white sakura trees on it, which had off white and light pink leaves. I really liked the kimono, and had paid over a hundred bucks for it, despite the fact that it was used. It was beautiful, and whoever had owned it had taken excellent care of it.

I was finished in less than twenty minutes, though I had to use considerable amount of both super speed and telekinesis. My fine control was getting better; toward the end I had been able to thread a needle and do some fairly nice stitchwork using only my mind and willpower. I put on the costume, the pieces flying through the air and fitting themselves onto my body one at a time. When I was fully decked out, I floated into the bathroom to take a look.

"Woah!" I exclaimed. Somehow, what was supposed to be a crappy starter costume actually looked pretty good! I had seen professional capes with outfits worse than this. I picked up the plunger from beside the toilet, and went back to my bedroom. I had to see if my costume was actually combat worthy, or if it would need more work. I spun through a few lightsaber katas, the plunger cutting through the air with loud whooshes of displaced air. I had been very careful to make sure that my movements wouldn't be restricted when putting everything together, and it had paid off. I could maybe modify the kimono a little bit; there was a little bit of tug when I did some of the more free-flowing arm movements, but it wasn't anything major. I decided that I would just tie it a little more loosely next time.

Finished waving around my disgusting faux-weapon, I put the plunger back where it belonged. I had taken off the white ballroom gloves for this occasion, so I washed my hands to remove the taint of their contact with the toilet unclogging apparatus. I grinned maniacally; I had my first costume! I would be able to go out tonight, and start the ball rolling on my plan to bring Sophia's stupidity to light. Seriously, who brings dangerous weapons into a school? She should really know better than that. And it she actually was using those arrows on people… The protectorate should be able to find that out easily. All they would have to do is look for cases of people with arrow wounds checking into the emergency room… or the city morgue.

I frowned, wondering if she had actually killed someone yet. If she was shooting people with projectiles that were meant for taking down three hundred pound deer, then eventually someone she shot was going to die, no matter how careful she aimed her shots. I grimaced, my mind running the numbers; I crosslinked my knowledge of ballistics, with human anatomy and medicine, getting a very distasteful answer. If Sophia was shooting people with arrows like those once or twice a week, and she had been active as a cape for over a year, then it was very likely she was already a killer, whether she stayed with her victims long enough to know it or not. My determination solidified. If I had anything to say about it, then Sophia Hess was going down.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Demigod of Brockton Bay**

 **A Worm/Demigods CYOA Story**

 **Chapter 2: She Moves... in Mysterious Ways**

Dad arrived home a little after six with some chinese takeout. That was a little embarrassing, since I had spontaneously decided to make to cook dinner, and it was almost done. We both stood in the kitchen, my father carrying his empty lunch pail and paper sack of full of MSG laden goodness in his hands, and me pulling a freshly baked meatloaf out of the oven. We looked at each other, each of us completely silent, each of us trying to figure out what to say.

Dad took in my apron and oven glove clad form, my new physical features mostly obscured by a veil of illusion, rendering me a slightly better looking version of the girl I had been yesterday. Dad was wearing his usual work garb; he had on a light blue long sleeved button down shirt and a pair of blue jeans with the legs tucked into his large work boots. Only in the dockworkers union would the head of the organization wear something like that.

We had been standing in silence for almost a minute, before either of us moved. I set the glass bread pan down on the counter, on the rack I had set up to let the meatloaf cool. I gave my father, Danny Hebert, a shy smile. "Hi dad. I'm sorry that I didn't call you and let you know that I was making dinner." I said. I really should have; it had been at least a couple of weeks since I made dinner; the stress of having to return to school had been getting to me lately. Of course, that was all before I got a number of insanely useful reality warping powers.

Dad gave me a weary smile, his pink lips standing out against the backdrop of his five o'clock shadow. He set the food on the table, and replied. "It's alright, sweetheart, I'll just put this in the fridge for tomorrow. Did your first day back at school go alright?"

We had never really spoken about it, the same way we didn't really talk about anything since mom had died, but I knew that he knew that something was wrong at school. Dad was a pretty smart guy, so he probably suspected bullying, but outside of a few half-hearted attempts he hadn't pushed me to tell him what was going on. Dad made a habit of not pushing me, even when he should. Sometimes I kind of wish he would get upset at my silence, and make a real attempt to talk to me; that would probably end up being good for the both of us in the long run, even if it would be unpleasant in the extreme to lay it all out on the table.

God, what was I thinking? It was like my train of thought was an actual locomotive, and it was stuck traveling along the same set of tracks that it did before I got my powers. The fact of the matter was that I wanted my dad back… My real dad, not this stranger wearing his skin like some kind of fucked up meatsuit. And since he hadn't been able to lift himself out of the fucked up funk that losing his wife over a year and a half ago had mired him in, I would probably have to be the one to do it. I would start by treating him like an actual family member, instead of something that got in the way of my life.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, it went pretty well. I haven't really talked about it with you, but early on last year Emma and I stopped being friends. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but the summer after mom died, while I was away at camp, she turned into a total bitch. Today, she got mad at me over something I said, and she tried to tackle me. I moved out of the way before she could hit me, and she rammed her head into a classroom door. I'm not happy that she was hurt, but it was nice not to have her at school for the rest of the day constantly sniping at me."

I had been preparing the baked potatoes I threw in the microwave earlier as I spoke. I gave my dad a real, truthful anecdote about my day for the first time in over a year as I took the large brown spuds out of the bag I had used to steam them, patting them dry with a kitchen towel and setting them on a small plate. I had prepared four potatoes; twice as many as I usually did, as I was feeling hungry enough to eat two. I turned around to set the plat on the table, noticing that my father had gone stock still, his face sporting a disbelieving look.

"Taylor… what?" I couldn't help but smirk at the bewildered expression he wore, which snapped him out of it. "Wait, when did you and Emma stop being best friends? How did that happen?" He asked, becoming a little more animated.

"Right after I came back from nature camp. I went over to visit her, and she had a new friend there, who really didn't like me for some reason. The two of them were actually giving me a hard time all last year. I didn't really want to talk about it, because I was really hurt that Emma would throw me under the bus like that. Her new friend, Sophia, is a real piece of work… she's a jock with some sort of weird philosophy which she uses to justify picking on people who she thinks of as "weak", which basically means anyone who's not a total asshole to other people for no real reason. I think Emma bought into her particular brand of crazy for some reason."

I finished fixing the salad as I answered my dad's question, adding the tomato and shredded carrot that I had prepared earlier and set in the fridge, then tossing it with the mixture of iceberg lettuce and spinach leaves in the bowl. I grabbed a double handful of rolls out of the bag, placing them on a plate before resealing the container. I put the rolls in the microwave for forty five seconds, then retrieved them and setting them on the table with everything else.

Dad had settled down at the table, his jacket slung over the back of his chair and the sleeves of his button down shirt rolled up. I scowled at him, and pointed to the sink, and he smirked before heading over there to wash his hands. The way he always tried to get out of washing his hands before a meal had been an old hot button for mom and I. I sighed, realizing that I hadn't made him wash his hands like that in over a year. Well, better late than never.

Dad talked over his shoulder as he scrubbed up. "So, this Sophia girl stole your friend away? She sounds like a real piece of work." He paused, dying his hands on the towel hanging next to the sink, and reseated himself at the table. When he got there, I had already dished him up, putting a large helping of salad on his plate, next to the potato and slab of meatloaf. Neither of us had been eating all that healthily lately, and he could use the vitamins from the vegetables. I had an equally large portion of greens on my own plate.

Dad dug into his meal with gusto, scowling at he chewed what he called "rabbit food", and grunting in approval when he tried my meatloaf. I had used mom's recipe, which had been handed down from her grandmother. Dad took a sip of his water, before looking at me again. He looked concerned. "Taylor, it's great that you're sharing all of this with me… but it's been forever since you opened up to me like this. I guess what I'm asking is... why now? Are you in trouble for fighting, or something like that?"

The old, immature part of me wanted to be offended, but now that I has some perspective, I understood that dad was asking because he was concerned for me. I couldn't find it in myself to be upset at him for that. "No, dad, I'm not in trouble. I just…" I sighed. Even with super everything, this was still ridiculously hard. "I guess I wanted to start letting you in again."

I saw my father's eyes soften, his expression one of pleased surprise. "Our relationship has been pretty rocky since mom died, and I _really_ don't like that. I've wanted to talk to you about this for a long time, but it's only now that I'm able to. I don't want us to keep drifting apart until we're strangers, dad. We're the only family that either of us have left."

Unbidden, I found myself crying. I hadn't really meant to get this emotional, but I guess I had a lot of feelings tied up in the complex relationship I had with my father. I was a little surprised when I felt his arms wrap around me, pulling me tight against him, but not as much as I thought. I hugged him back, remembering all of the times he used to hug me like this when I was younger. It felt nice, like recovering a missing piece of my life that I had thought lost forever. We eventually broke off our hug, and I wiped my misty eyes. We returned to our dinner, and dad started telling me about his dad.

'It might just be possible to repair the damaged relationship I have with my dad,' I thought, 'given some time and a little effort.' I shot my father a shy smile, which he returned. The rest of the evening went OK.

 **.** **.** **.**

I had gone to bed early, intending to wake up at 1:30 in the morning, to begin my plan of making contact with the Protectorate and/or PRT. After doing my evening ablutions, I changed into my pajamas, which I realized didn't fit me very well anymore. It was inconvenient, but as that was the only price for changing from a beanpole into an hourglass, I was mostly alright with it. My head hit the pillow at 10PM, and to my surprise, I found myself waking up fully rested at midnight. I tried to go back to sleep, sure that another hour of shuteye would do me good, but it just wasn't happening.

Bizarrely, I felt positively chock full of energy. My muscles felt good, my mind felt clear, and I was completely prepared to face the day… only it wasn't day. It was the freaking middle of the night! I suddenly remembered that Divine Resilience contained a snippet about "rarely getting tired". I had thought that portion of the description for the power in question had to do with "getting tired" from using special powers, like telekinesis and healing hands, not from regular fatigue. I had even asked the God about it, and she said that it would help me use powers for longer without becoming exhausted from doing so. I guess she hadn't specifically mentioned that it would make me sleep less… I guess I had just assumed that allowing me to use powers for longer was the extent of it. I would need to check my memory, and experiment with my other powers, to see if there was anything else unexpected that I would find.

It suddenly hit me that I hadn't slept _at all_ the night before, when the angel came to visit me, and that I hadn't even noticed it until now. I spent a few minutes completely taking stock of myself, discovering that I _definitely_ felt better than I did the day before, even if it wasn't a huge difference. I had still felt better than I had in a long, long time yesterday, both physically and mentally. I guessed that I _did_ need sleep, at least to operate at my best, but that it wasn't nearly as important to my health and wellbeing as it had been before I ascended to demi-godhood. I smirked; sleeping much less than I used to, and being able to operate at nearly 100% without sleeping would definitely come in handy.

I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I kindly thanked the universe for the extra hour, and changed into my costume. Before leaving, I tried something that I hadn't yet had experimented with yet; using illusions to effect the people's minds. According to the power's description, incorporeal illusions could be used to "cause fear, panic, or whatever you desire". The sheer overpowered brokenness that this description implied insured that it was one of the first powers I picked, and that it ended up on my "must haves" short list.

Now, if only there had been a power or gift that would have allowed me to get more points, or somehow pull new powers out of my ass like Eidolon… that would have been truly amazing. Oh, well, boo-hoo. Look at the girl with fifteen fucking powers crying because she can't get more. Most parahumans had to make do with just one, and those usually weren't even as good as any one of my demigod abilities.

I used God's Eyes to peer at my father, finding him in bed sleeping normally. Good, all according to plan. It was time to see if illusions were as broken as I suspected them to be. I concentrated, imposing my willpower on the universe, substituting the normal fabric of reality with my own. If Illusions could cause fear and panic, I had thought while looking over the power, then they should be capable of causing other 'status effects' as well. In this case, I layered an illusion of sleep over dad's pajama-clad form. Dredging up every memory of being tired that I could recall, I formed them into a tightly compacted intangible ball of sleepitude, and poured it over him. I felt something snap into being, and I saw dad smile, settling into a deeper, more restful form of slumber. 'Success!' I thought, smiling in glee.

Now that I had made sure dad would be waking up to discover me missing from bed, I opened the window and leaped out. I vanished in midair, long before anyone outside my house would have been able to see me past our fence and the large tree in the yard. Boosting my shadow flight with telekinesis, I shot toward downtown Brockton Bay like a rocket. I pushed the gravity manipulation component of telekinesis a little, accelerating to the point that I was moving faster than I could run with super speed. Apparently my reflexes and eyeballs were rated for higher than a little over the speed of sound, the supposed limit of my running speed, because at no point was I moving fast enough that I couldn't see the world around me or control my movements perfectly. I marveled at the stupendous synergy the different abilities I picked had with each other.

I arrived at the PRT building in seconds. Floating sedately into a convenient alleyway, I prepared to become visible and tangible before suddenly stopping. My eyes narrowed, and I frowned… Something had set off my danger sense. What was wrong here? I looked around the alley with my OP-grade eyeballs, soon finding the reason that my "Sixth Sense" power had activated for the first time. There were no less than four cameras in the alleyway, two of them with integrated microphones, and two without. There were also three independent listening devices as well. I studied the 'bugs' intently, wonder who had planted them here, and for what reason. Sure, it could have been the PRT; that was certainly a possibility. Due to the different make and model of the devices, I thought that there were probably two different parties peeping on whoever was dumb enough to switch costumes or use this alley as a landing place/teleport location.

The two surveillance devices with integrated microphones had the look of Tinkertech; they were all smooth lines and futuristic bits and bobbles. I liked the way that whoever had built them had set up the communications array; that entire component was partially placed phased into a pocket sub-dimension, which I was certain the receiver on the other end of the camera had access to. That would allow nearly light-speed communication, with no appreciable lag. The components had all been miniaturized beyond anything I had ever heard of or seen with my new eyes. I wondered for a moment why whoever had built it hadn't utilized a quantum entangled link, as that-

'Woah, hold the phone!' I thought, my conscious mind catching up with my runaway thoughts. 'I can understand _Tinkertech_!?' Shock coursed through me, as I ran through the enormous amount of knowledge in my mind. Yes, I concluded; evidently I could understand Tinkertech just fine… at least some of it. I supposed that it made sense. For the last thirty years, the power-granted superscience known as Tinkertech had certainly been a field of human knowledge, even if only a small portion of humanity had access to that information. Part of Godly Mind was "being moderately learned in _all_ fields of human knowledge". Apparently that meant every single fucking one, power granted fields of knowledge like Tinkertech included.

I guess "Godly Mind" might be a little more overpowered than I thought. I giggled, my incorporeal form producing no sound. I suddenly wondered if I could build a miniaturized camera like the one I had just analyzed. I was instantly sure that I could, thought getting the correct parts and materials would be difficult. I could substitute telekinesis for many of the tools that were required, thankfully. Could I have built it before I scanned it down to the molecular level with my eyes? I didn't think so. I could probably have made something that would perform the same function, but it would have been nearly as small or efficient. I didn't have designs or blueprints in my head, like I thought real Tinker probably had, but rather I had the distilled knowledge of the principals and engineering techniques behind needed to create super advanced inventions. Likewise, I had a fairly complete knowledge base of mundane science and engineering, which helped me understand the Tinkertech stuff to a surprisingly large degree.

I frowned; this didn't really make sense. Tinkertech was supposed be so difficult to build and maintain that non-parahumans simply couldn't do it. Beyond the attempts to simply parrot Tinkers, and reproduce what they had built, there had been many studies which tried to fathom the actual science behind the marvelous inventions and processes that Tinker had created over the years. Nearly all of these ended in failure, as the Tinkers themselves couldn't really explain what they were doing very well, especially in the context of the current human state of the art in science and engineering.

There had been a few rare exceptions, which had led to the comparatively small and beleaguered population of Earth Bet keeping rough parity with Earth Aleph, the only alternate dimension with which we are able to communicate. There are also many "Tinker Inspired" inventions, which are exactly what they sounds like; inventions which are based upon the functionality or features of Tinkertech, without being actually based on them technologically. Normal scientists would come up with different ways of doing the same things, using mundane techniques… after all, once you know something can be done, you're already part of the way there in terms of doing it yourself.

The "Tinker" knowledge in my head was actual scientific principles, which I could understand and explain, and sound engineering techniques that I should be capable of demonstrating. In order for me to have gained this information, then it had to be a part of "human knowledge". That meant that Tinkers _were_ actually in possession of it in the first place. Nearly every Tinker to ever exist had the same odd limitations against explaining their knowledge and building machines which are replicable and easily repaired. This means that _something_ is actively preventing an entire archetype of parahman from freely using and sharing their knowledge with the rest of humanity. I was shocked and bewildered by this revelation… if we had been able to gain the actual knowledge and principles behind Tinkertech, beginning in the 80's, then I could only imagine how amazing the world would have been by now.

I sudden had a horrendous thought: There may be some kind of intelligent being or force behind parahuman powers, and if so, it doesn't want human technology to advance because of Tinkertech. Oh, I suppose there could be another explanation; becoming a Tinker might damage someone's brain in such a way that they're rendered incapable of sharing the information that they're given, or it could be that somehow only people who have these defects in the first place are capable of becoming Tinkers. I didn't think so, however… It just didn't _feel_ like the correct explanation. It seems that my intuition was enhanced along with everything else, as the "gut feelings" that I have been getting since yesterday have been unusually strong. They seem to arrive just when I need them, and with a surety that I'm correct so strong that I cannot simply dismiss it. I wonder if this is some kind of interaction between Godly Mind and Sixth sense… I suddenly get another hunch that I'm correct. If these gut feelings are correct, then my amplified intuition is potent enough that it could be a superpower in it's own right. I wonder if there's anything that I couldn't figure out, given the right information...

For now, I file the fact that I can understand and build advanced technology, as well as "The Mystery of the Brain-Fucked Tinkers" in my mental 'to do' box. Fuck you, Future Me! You can deal with this bullshit… I've got other things to take care of tonight. I've been hovering in air above the bugged alleyway for over five minutes now, just sitting there and thinking like a chump. I'm itching to get moving at this point. I find a place to become tangible which is no under constant surveillance, and rematerialize myself without becoming visible. It's good to know that I can keep the invisibility part up without the matter phasing; I should probably see if the reverse is true at some point.

I layer illusions again, first making one of a 20's man in a similar costume as mine, and placing it over top of my still invisible body. On top of that, I start to build the illusion that I plan to use for my grab-bag cape persona. I've been trying to decide what my cape name should be since I first conceived of the idea, and after sleeping on it I've decided. I've chosen to base my grab bag persona on a very famous mythical and historical figure. It's a homage to the origin of my powers and my true nature, though that part is not obvious. Most people will probably focus on the popular interpretations of the character I'll be imitating or my appearance, never realizing that there's a deeper meaning hidden under the surface. Those who _are_ completely familiar with the mythos of my namesake will likely believe that I'm another cape with delusions of grandeur, or fantasies of magic, like most of the parahumans who base themselves around figures of legend or fantasy.

I start from the top down, crafting the hair to begin with. Wavy ringlets of golden blond spill forth from my crown, each strand shining with its own inner luminescence. It spills down to nearly the small of my back, despite the elaborate hair ornaments that are woven throughout it; a band of flowers, each of them finely crafted from pure gold and precious gemstones. Over this, I wear a white scarf, which does nothing to cover my face or the back of my head, but instead spills over both sides. The face of the woman I'm imitating is as unnaturally beautiful as my own, for all that it's features are completely different. My avatar has unblemished milk colored skin, with no marks beyond the tiny pores that are needed to create realistic looking flesh. In the middle of my faux face sits a small upturned nose, sitting below the clearest blue eyes imaginable. My cheekbones are fairly prominent, but not pointy, and my ears small and feminine. The jawline is feminine, but still strong, giving a determined cast to my exceptional good looks, terminating in a fairly small chin, which ends in a rounded point.

My illusory body is lush without being overweight in the slightest, with a generous bust and hips, and a slightly waspish waist. My body is clearly well muscled, but there are no unsightly lumps or bulges; my musculature resides beneath a thin layer of soft female padding, allowing me to appear strong, but not masculine. This body is not as tall as my own. My actual form is exactly six feet tall, as I shot up at least three inches due to my physical upgrade. This one is only around five foot nine inches; visibly shorter, but still somewhat tall for a woman.

My "costume" is a 'mostly' period accurate representation of what my namesake was depicted as wearing. I _appear_ to have on a white garment, which is one part dress and one part toga. It's fairly simple up top; sleeveless and white, with thin straps that go over my shoulders near the base of my neck, and contours that hug my ample chest. As the eye follows my dress down, it become more elaborate, gaining layers of free flowing cloth, which billows out slightly. A slit on one side exposes my left leg, nearly to mid-thigh. The rich white cloth is accented with cloth of gold, and the back is open to the base of my spine, exposing the artful dimple above my buttocks. In a nod to cape culture and mores, I wear the smallest domino mask that could conceivably be said to conceal my identity; it had a curved space at the bottom for my nose, and an identical curved portion at the top. I decorated the mask with embossed vines replete with intricate flowers and thorns. I didn't color the mask at all; it was left solid white.

I walked the block and half to the PRT building, my strappy, open toes grecian sandals padding silently on the hard concrete sidewalk. They were white with gold trim, to match the rest of my costume, and the thin straps that went most of the way up my bare calves were stylized flowing vines like the decorations on my mask. A college aged boy and girl who appeared to be out on a date spotted me before as I approached my destination, the boy stopping abruptly to stare at the sheer majesty of my illusory body from the other side of the road. His girlfriend gave him a strange look, before turning to see what had caught his attention. She looked at me wide-eyed for a moment, too, before scowling and elbowing her companion in the ribs. I let out a small chuckle as she dragged him down the street while he clutched the spot on his side where she had poked him.

The PRT building was a fairly normal looking office building, barring the tall rebar concrete fences lined with embedded foam sprayers on each side. Oh, and the body armor wearing PRT agents… There were eight uniformed troopers outside, three two-man teams patrolling the perimeter, while the last pair of guarded the front entrance. I could see all kinds of nifty electronics and mechanisms embedded in the walls of the building, as well as underground, including no less than four "secret" entrances. Well, not too secret when it came to me. I approached the front door, marveling at the three very lethal traps hidden along the walkway that had to be crossed to reach it. The non-lethal countermeasures were even more impressive; what looked like a Tinkertech forcefield generator, containment foam bombs, some kind of bioelectricity interruption system, and sedative gas sprayer. Being in the PRT was serious business! I decided not to do anything that might set off one of more of those traps. I could probably escape from or survive any of them, but why would I want to test that?

The guards at the door tensed when they saw me, and the thick, burly guy on the right grabbed his radio. He whispered something into it while his partner, who was a fairly dainty 20-something woman with dirty blond hair under all of that uniform, reached her hand down most, but not all, of the way toward a pistol that was holstered on her right hip. I gave them a friendly smile as I approached, stopping several feet from them. "Hello, the PRT! I'm a new Independant hero, and I would like to speak with someone in your organization or the Protectorate. I have discovered something that I believe to be a possible crime. May I approach?" I spoke clearly, and loud enough that they were able to hear me from the ten feet back I stood from them. I really didn't want to test my durability and regeneration by getting shot at by the good guys, that was for damn sure.

The man with the radio spoke a few more words into the it, and then listened to a reply that he received. I had been standing there for about a minute and a half by that point. The male agent clipped the communications device back on his belt, before answering my question. "You can head in now. Head to the front desk in the lobby and check in, and someone will be with you shortly to take your statement."

I walked forward, the man smiling at me and holding the door as I walked past. I could see his eyes roaming over my delicious illusionary curves as I walked past. I smiled; it had only taken one day of having a super hot body to figure out how to completely enthrall any heterosexual man, and I didn't even have to use any super powers! Well, I was using a superpower to make the fake body I was flaunting, but that didn't count since I could do the same thing with my regular body. Well, I guess that my regular body was enhanced by what was _basically equivalent_ to a super power… Fuck it, I'm dropping this line of thought like a bad habit.

I walked through the door, stepping into a large, modern looking lobby. I had been here for a tour when I was in my first year of middle school, but they had updated it since then. The gift shop was still in roughly the same spot, though it now took up a lot more of the available floor space, shrinking the lobby down to a small area with less than a dozen chairs, and a tall built-in counter, behind which sat a PRT employ in a non-combat uniform. The receptionist was maybe forty years old, and his mocha colored head was shaved completely smooth, like a billiard ball. I observed him through the wall before I stepped inside, and he was idly flipping through a dogeared novel, a bored expression on his face. He looked up at me as I closed in on the desk, and his expression was anything _but_ bored, now.

He was looking at me intently, a stone cold serious look on his face, and his back was ramrod straight. He had been sitting in a chair, but before I would have been able to see him with normal vision he had stood up. _This_ guy certainly wasn't checking me out… rather, he was looking at me as if I was a wild animal, and he didn't know if I was hostile or friendly yet. I nodded my head at him curtly, and stopped a few feet from the counter. He nodded back, not an iota of vigilance leaving his expression or posture. I smiled under the illusion; I approved of his professionalism and attitude. I was learned enough now to understand that a single, unarmed, unpowered person stood basically no chance against the vast majority of parahumans. That this badass could face an unknown cape with that kind of attitude, especially while unarmed, was impressive.

"Name, affiliation, and reason for visit?" He asked in a bored tone of voice.

"Helen of Troy, independant hero. I'm here because I detected something with my powers that I believe is a crime perpetrated by a parahuman." I gave him the bare basics, delivered succinctly. He seemed like the type of person who would appreciate that.

He raised a single eyebrow, looking at me questioningly. "Please sign into the registry, and have a seat. Someone will be out to meet with you shortly." He placed one of those fancy looking metal clipboards in front of me, a pen with the PRT logo attached to it by a short chain. I picked up the pen, and carefully printed my cape name, using my knowledge of fonts to write it in perfect helvetica. I put the date down in times new roman, and the reason for visit (To report a possible crime.) in comic sans. The PRT agent, who I decided to call Q-Ball in my head, took the clipboard, and entered some information into the computer terminal built into the desk at standing height. It didn't contain any Tinkertech, according to my magical peepers, but the processor inside of it was so much better than the one in my computer at home that I felt like pouting. I refrained from acting like a petulant child, and took a seat in one of the shitting waiting room chairs in the lobby.

Maybe ten minutes later, I began to feel something odd, and it wasn't boredom or impatience. I had been studying a very interesting Tinkertech elevator, trying to figure out the principles behind some of the more esoteric components, so I was far from bored. It was like a buzzing, or tingling, and it was getting stronger. It sort of felt like someone was tickling my spine with a feather, but it was all in my head. Suddenly, a sort of three dimensional radar screen popped up in my head, showing me an image of a 3D map, with only the parts I had been to, or otherwise scanned with my eyes filled in.

I gave it an assessing gaze, and double-checked with my bullshit eye and brain powers; it was sphere with my position in positioned in the center, and it extended out 100 meters in every direction from my center of mass. There was a single "blip" on the radar; a sort of glowing circle, like the one that represented me, and it was getting steadily closer to my position. I double-checked my inventory of powers, trying to figure out what could be causing this weird map/radar effect. The only power I had that could unconsciously track people, for I was sure that the incoming blip was a person, was "sixth sense", and it was only designed to let me discover other Demigods. The God had told me that I was the only Demigod she empowered in my entire dimension, and that other Gods hadn't been here for millennia… so I doubted that I was actually seeing another Demigod. I extrapolated the position of the blip, and took a glance at it with my vision power.

It was Miss Militia; apparently my sixth sense let me detect parahumans, as long as they were 100m from me or less. She was walking slowly through a hallway in the PRT building, holding a clipboard with a piece of paper that contained all of the information the PRT had on me at present. There was a freshly printed picture of my currently illusionary disguise. It had been taken outside on the walkway, while I was waiting to enter the front door. They must have made me wait so they could try to find me in their database, and when that failed, to snap a photo of me for reference. The government hero was lightly chewing on her bottom lip, as she reread the short entry on the page that she was staring at worriedly. If she was that concerned, then I guess meeting with a new parahuman was a bigger deal than I thought.

The heading on the paper read, "Possible Parahuman 'Helen of Troy'. Under that, there was little enough. In the "Powers" section someone had listed "Powers unknown. Possible Thinker rating due to comments about 'Detecting possible criminal activity with powers'" and "Possible Changer/Stranger rating due to idealized body type and unusually symmetrical facial features.'"

I snorted. Someone had put down that I might be a changer or stranger because my disguise was too pretty. I wondered what they would have thought upon seeing my _real_ face. It would have been, though, funnier if it wasn't true… Effectively, I did have a Changer or Stranger rating due to my illusions, even if the power was more of a Shaker ability. Even in the middle of the night, these guys knew their stuff. It said something about the world, and possibly the average parahuman, that we in such dire straights with people as dedicated and on the ball as these protecting us. Now if only they could clean the thuggish pieces of shit wards out of their own organization, I would be happy. Well, maybe not happy, but certainly more inclined to trust and work with them in the future.

As it was I was giving the Protectorate the benefit of the doubt. I hadn't realized when I first found out that Sophia was a parahuman, just how short a timeframe she had been a member of the government agency. I had learned at lunch that the wards had only announced that she was joining their roster two months ago, during the summer break. For all I know she might have joined just a few days before, after the last school year was already over. They was no way the protectorate or PRT would have been able to find out about the bullying she did last year unless they went over Blackwell and her staff's records of my complaints... if they bothered to keep any at all. The principal had seemed unconcerned enough with my bullying problem last year that I doubt she wrote down anything at all. I still didn't know if Blackwell had been aware of Sophia's status as a parahuman; if she has been, she may have been pandering to her due to fear, or because they had some kind of understanding. Oh, well… back I thought Sophia was just a hero that like to bully me in her spare time, these thoughts mattered. Now that she was possible murderess the only thing that counted at this point was to expose her illegal weapons and get her taken off the street.

I followed Miss Militia while thinking, observing her enter the elevator I had been eyeballing earlier. She exited the elevator car on the ground floor, striding toward a small conference room with a two way mirror, before taking a seat. At the same time, a fully kitted out squad of five PRT stormtroopers finished suiting up and strapping weapons to their bodies, in a room that I assumed was an armory. One of them headed to the door near the waiting room in which I sat, while the other four took up positions in various cover positions and hidey-holes between where I sat and where Miss Militia was located. I was becoming more impressed with the PRT all the time… Growing up in the Bay, where huge swaths of the city were basically at the mercy of the two most powerful gangs, the E88 and the ABB, I had harbored a fairly low opinion of the Parahuman Response Team. I figured that if they couldn't clean up a couple of gangs, then either they were incompetent or they weren't trying hard enough.

They definitely weren't incompetent; not that I had seen so far. They probably expected that I wasn't a threat by this point, at least not an immediate one, but the agents I had observed were still doing everything textbook perfect, just in case I was. And if I hadn't had my completely off the wall bullshit eye power then I would never even have known. I felt a sudden wash of foreboding; if the good guys were actually competent, then they might also being doing their best to fight crime as well. If that was the case, then how powerful and/or dangerous did that mean the criminals actually were? I would endeavor to find out, sooner rather than later. After my meeting here then it might be time to put phase two of my strategy into effect.

In addition to the friendly independant hero with grab-bag powers, I would need to create a second identity. This new cape persona would be meant to both inspire hope to the common, law abiding man, and fear to the law breaking degenerate. I had come up with some amazing ideas for this new avatar's appearance and cape name, to the point that I almost wished I could just skip the whole mess here with the PRT and start work on that. Unfortunately, I couldn't… not without looking like some kind of attention seeking idiot, or some kind of incompetent villain. It was too late to back out now, however, even if I wanted to; the door leading deeper in the PRT building opened, and the geared up stormtrooper walked out, her face and gender completely obscured (to other people) by an unflattering black helmet with a mirrored visor.

"Helen of Troy. Please follow me." She said, gesturing to the open door before entering it. I sauntered after her, looking around the bare corridor as if I hadn't already seen every inch of it, inside and out. I easily kept pace with the slightly shorter government agent, and in only a minute or two we arrived at a door that lead into a meeting room. Inside was Miss Militia, as I had seen earlier, though there were a couple of new faces on the other side of the mirrored glass, who were setting up some kind of audio recording equipment.

The patriotic looking cape stood, a friendly smile on her face under the mask she wore. I gave her my own version in response. "Hello there. I'm Miss Militia, a hero with the Protectorate East-North-East. You're Helen of Troy, right?" She spoke perfect english, but there was just the faintest hint of an accent present. Kurdish, my newfound wealth of information informed me.

"That's right." I supplied, my voice like liquid honey. "Thank you for meeting with me on such short circumstances. I'd thought that I would just be talking to one of the PRT guys, not a real superhero, though. I'm sorry if they had to get you out of bed, or something like that."

"It's really no problem," said Miss Militia, who seemed to be warming up to me a little. The muscles inside of her back that had been tense when I first walked in were starting to relax, and she had uncrossed the toes on her left foot inside of her boot. The flag masked heroine continued. "I don't actually sleep, so you certainly didn't wake me up. It's part of my powers," she explained.

"Wow, that's really interesting!" She was like me when it came to sleep... how odd! I had thought Miss Militia's only power was the ability to create phantom weapons. "I'm actually quite similar; ever since I got my powers I've needed very little sleep, only about an hour or two at night at most. I can also skip a night's rest without any big problems if I need to," I confided, both interested to see her reaction, and trying to put her at ease. I figured that giving her this little tidbit wouldn't hurt anything, as it wasn't useful tactically beyond revealing that I might _possibly_ be active at night. Sharing details about my "grab bag" powers also helped build trust, and drew parallels between the two of us. Hopefully it would strengthen the likelihood that she would trust and believe me when I shared my intel with her.

Miss Militia sat back down, gesturing for me to do so as well. I took the proffered chair, crossing my legs as I sat down. "That _is_ interesting." Replied the costumed woman. "There aren't many of us with that ability." She looked thoughtful for a moment, hesitating a little, before opening her mouth slightly to speak. She closed her mouth abruptly, evidently deciding to drop whatever she had been about to say. Odd. She sat up straighter, her posture becoming a little more rigid and professional.

"Sorry, I had something else on my mind for a moment there. Can you tell me what brings you to the PRT building today, Ms. Troy? Or should I call you Helen?" The brunette asked me, her tone more formal than before. She had a clipboard in front of her, with a legal pad clamped to it. Her power, a kaleidoscopic blur of energy, which could turn into various weapons, had become a pen knife in her hand, and she appeared to have every intention of writing down everything I wanted to tell her.

'Game time,' I thought. "Helen is fine. If you want to talk about something else, then I would be happy to meet with you another time, just the two of us. I don't really know any other capes yet, so making a new friend would be great." I gave her shy smile, before assuming my own imitation of her "serious business" attitude. She smiled, her eyes reflecting the expression well enough that even people who couldn't see through solid matter would have been able to tell.

"I'm here tonight because I discovered something upsetting today, which I believe involves one of your Wards." I said, my voice crisp and concise. The government superhero looked a bit surprised, but she didn't interrupt. "I was patrolling near Winslow high school earlier today, and while using one of my powers, I discovered a hidden supply cache inside of the school. It included some very disturbing items... The cache contained a rather less professional version of your ward Shadow Stalker's costume, as well as two miniature crossbows, and some cheap 'burner' cell phones. Most worryingly, there was also a quiver full of hunting arrows." I paused for a second, letting my words sink in. "You can see why I came here as soon as I could."

Miss Militia was wearing an angry frown on her face, and her eyes were narrowed. "I'm going to need to know the exact location of this cache, and how exactly you 'discovered it"." She said, her tone glacial. I could tell that she wouldn't accept me rebuffing her, despite the fact that she was asking me to reveal information about the capabilities of my powers.

"Of course." I replied, "I had suspected that you would need that information. The cache is located behind a bank of student lockers, lodged in the space between the walls. It's in the hallway that just inside the main entrance of the school, on the right-hand side when you walk in. You will need to go approximately half-way down the hallway to get there. The number outside of the locker directly in front of the cache is 251." I rattled off to her. She frantically wrote the information down, not once asking me to repeat the details I gave her. She recorded them perfectly, even down to my somewhat clumsy wording; Miss Militia must have a damn good memory.

I frowned lightly. "As for how I discovered these items… The truth is, I'm a "grab bag" cape, with several powers. One of them is greatly enhanced eyesight, and the ability to see through solid objects." I reluctantly supplied. The heroine sitting across from me gave me a startled look, and I continued, as if I hadn't seen her. "It works great on inanimate objects, but I can't see through people or animals, or anything within a few inches of them. They show up as blank spots when I try looking at them through walls." I scowled, as if greatly annoyed by the 'Manton limits' on this power.

Miss Militia's settled down a bit, as she parsed the meaning contained in the information I had given her, distilling it into the part most important to her; I couldn't see through her costume, and her identity was safe. She looked at me, no longer frowning but still sporting a severe expression. "This is a very serious accusation to make. Are you completely certain of what you're telling me?"

I nodded, completely serious. "Yes. Completely." I replied.

She placed her hand over her eyes, rubbing them gently in exasperation. "Fuck. Tonight and tomorrow aren't going to be fun." She sighed, and then gathered herself. "I believe what you're telling me Helen, but the PRT director will probably insist that you demonstrate your power and sign an affidavit that you're being truthful, to prove that there's nothing funny going on." Militia looked at me questioningly. "She may even insist that you come with us to the school, so that you can show us exactly where the items you found are located."

I frowned. This was going to take longer than I thought. "If we can get started now, then I'll be happy to help you in any way that I can. But I _do_ have places to be come morning… I'll have to take my leave at five or six at the latest." I replied.

Miss Militia stood up, and gesturing at me to follow, walked out of the room. I stepped up beside her, keeping pace by her side as we traversed the hallways. "That should be fine. To get a head start and not waste any time, I would like you to meet with one of our researchers to confirm your power while I contact the director and fill her in on the situation. Is that alright?" She asked.

I smiled at her. "That sounds reasonable. You just want me to demonstrate my visual power, right?" I asked.

The gunslinging cape nodded. "Yes. We don't have time for anything else right now, and there's no need to invade your privacy further. I understand that most capes are a little leary of disclosing all of the details about their powers, and there's no need to subject you to that," she advised me.

It didn't take long to reach our destination. I looked around the small laboratory that I found myself in. I took in the clean counters and floors, and examined the small amount of Tinkertech equipment present. I turned to study a machine that I discovered was for measuring the force of an impact against a large metal plate mounted in the front. 'It's probably something for testing the strength of Brutes and Strikers,' I thought. Like the earlier example I had seen of Tinker made machinery, this device had some weird flaws that the inventor really should have caught in the design phase. The capacitors were slightly undersized for the amount of power required, meaning they would need to be replaced fairly often due to stress from overworking them. This would also cause the machine to overheat a little bit, and _of course_ there wasn't adequate ventilation… That would probably cause the whole thing to accumulate wear and tear rapidly as the various parts overheated. I guessed that it would fail in a three or four months, maybe sooner if it was used frequently.

"Tinkertech is so weird…" I muttered under my breath while looking at the machine. Miss Militia gave me a glance and a strange look, before her eyes opened wide, as if she had just realized something.

"You can actually see inside of that machine, can't you?" She sounded a bit awed. Surely a fairly minor extrasensory ability wasn't that interesting… was it? I hope that I hadn't screwed up by revealing it. In the worst case scenario, I would only have to switch identities… I hadn't revealed very much at all about my powers so far.

"Yeah. Normal machines are fairly straightforward; very logical layouts, easily understandable. The Tinkertech that I've seen so far, though, has all of these weird flaws… It's like the people making them are intentionally sabotaging their own inventions. It perplexes me." I told her.

She looked impressed at my admission. "Do you actually understand how the devices work? Are you a Tinker?" She asked, eyeing me with interest.

"I'm definitely not a Tinker," I said chuckling. "I'm just someone who knows quite a bit about electronics and engineering in general. This device, for instance, uses off the shelf capacitors that are a little too small to handle the current that the machine needs to operate. They can technically supply the power, but it makes the capacitors constantly overheat. They'll probably wear out very quickly." I said. The other woman nodded at me, asking me to continue. "To make matters worse, all of the waste heat made by the capacitors is actually circulating inside of the machine instead of being vented outside of it, causing damage to slowly accumulate on all of the other components." I sighed shaking my head; so much trouble stemming from one stupid flaw.

A tall-ish man in business casual clothing under a lab coat stepped into the room, just as I finished speaking; I had seen him in the hall listening to me talk to Miss Militia. She turned to face the man, giving him a nod and a slight smile, which he returned. "Helen of Troy," she said, looking at me, while gesturing to the newcomer. "This is Dr. Meyers, one of our best researchers. He's here to perform the power test that you agreed to perform."

"Hello there, young lady." Said Dr. Meyer jovially. "It's always a pleasure to meet a new hero!" He was a white man in his late 30's, with thick black hair that was long on top and combed to the side, like actors I'd seen in movies from the 1950's. Intelligent blue eyes shined under his thick, finely groomed eyebrows, paying rapt attention to my appearance. He was also a little short, at maybe five and half feet, though he had a presence that seemed to make his physical stature irrelevant.

The scientist stepped forward to actually shake my hand, something that none of the other people here at the PRT building had done. I shook his hand, giving him a smile. "It's nice to meet you as well, Doctor." I replied. Dr. Meyer gave me my hand back, and then turned to Protectorate member who had accompanied me here when she started to speak.

"I'll just leave you in the good doctor's very capable hands, Helen. The testing shouldn't take long, but the call might, so it may be as long as an hour before I return. I'll have more details for you come I come back." She turned to the PRT researcher. "I leave our guest in your very capable hands, Dr. Meyer."

"Of course, my dear. You go make that call, and please tell the good director that I said 'hi'." He replied. Miss Militia muttered and agreement, and left the room. I saw her walk to a small office with a trio of desks, where she sat down and started dialing a phone.

Dr. Meyer gave me a long look. "So, I understand that you can see through inanimate objects?" He asked, giving me an assessing look, his hands clasped behind his back.

"That's right. I have a few other powers as well, but that's the one we're here to test today." I returned.

"Oh, now you've got me curious! Grab bag capes are so rare, you know… please, off the record, can you tell me what else you can do?" His voice was eager, reminding me of my own antics when I tried to get parents to give me sweets when I was much younger. I glanced around, not finding any other active recording devices, or cameras in this space. Maybe they interfered with the research and power testing done here?

"Well, I heal quite a bit faster than normal, and there's this other thing, but I really don't want to spread it around too much," I whispered, darting my eyes around.

"I promise, not a word to anyone, even my superiors. My entire life is studying and learning more about parahumans, and you've got me curious." He said, whispering as well. "And don't worry about cameras or microphones in this area, we do powers testing for independents and members of other organizations here, so we don't have any fixed surveillance equipment installed; we have to bring in portable devices as needed."

"Well, I suppose it's alright," I said, a lilt in my voice,"since you promised." Gesturing to the ground, I willed one of my portals to come into existence. My "Portals Maker" power seemed to require some kind of input… I focused on it for a moment, trying to- Ah! It wanted me to choose what the portal I was calling into existence should look like. Evidently I could make them look like pretty much anything I wanted. I should probably make it big and flashy, to make the PRT think I couldn't make them without attracting notice. I pictured what I wanted, and just like that the dimensional transportation device snapped into existence.

A swirling blue vortex with a center that looked like stars in the night sky suddenly appeared on the floor. It was perhaps five feet wide-which I had complete control over, I had found, and it took up literally no space on the other plane, being two dimensional. Dr. Meyer stared in the hole which I'd punched in reality, his face lit up like a kid on christmas morning. I gestured over to the wall on the other side of the room, and another portal was suddenly there. The second the other portal appeared, the centers of both portals changed, each showing the the scene visible from other side. Looking into the floor showed us an upside-down, sideways version of our own backs.

Dr. Meyer was literally vibrating with excitement, his eyes wide like saucers. "Are they...? Can you?" He asked, gesturing to each portal, making complex motions with his hands. "Is it safe!?" He practically yelled when I started giggling at his manic enthusiasm.

"Yes, you can travel through them safely." I said. "Watch!" I jumped into the portal in the floor, and somehow emerged from the other side standing, my feet stepping on the floor. The momentum I'd had going in one side had vanished, and my body had been reoriented so that I could emerge without falling onto my face.

"Ta-da!" I said, holding my arms wide. Dr. Meyer was goggling at me, his mouth open.

"Amazing!" He cried, running to a bench and picking up some kind of gadget. Turning it on, he pointed it at the portal on the floor while he studied the small screen on the device. "Astounding!" He crowed. I chucked again; watching him work was hilarious. Dr. Meyer seemed an alright sort. He was pressing buttons on the machine, which I'd identified as a Tinkertech gravitational force sensor, looking more and more ecstatic by the second.

"Young lady, do you know what you've done?" He asked gleefully. I shook my head, not understanding what he was getting at. "You've just gone faster than light! You've proven that _it is_ possible to traverse the universe at superluminal speeds!"

I frowned. "Don't teleporters do that all the time?" I asked him. I consulted my own knowledge base on parahumans, but there wasn't much there on teleporters. They were extremely rare, and the studies on them were apparently more than my "moderate knowledge" of this particular subject covered.

"Nope!" Said the doctor, who was fiddling with a different device now, a rod-like machine which contained small sensors of several different varieties. "There is always a delay, or an effect, or some other trick to _simulate_ instantaneous transportation. There _are_ way to get around the speed of light, to cheat and bypass it entirely. Some capes have powers which we've proven actually tunnel into different quantum universes, and then have effects which travel back and forth, causing the illusion of moving faster than light… but they're just bypassing it, not actually moving that quickly in any one universe." He pushed the rod through the exact center of the portal, causing half of its length to emerge from the other side.

He turned back around, looking at me seriously. "You've actually done it, though, Helen. Your portals are both in this quantum universe. According to my readings, the two points in space have somehow been joined together, becoming one point. Do you know how big this is? Depending on the mechanics of your power, this could be the biggest discovery in the last few decades!"

I frowned. Shit! This wasn't good… I wished for a second that I had taken Telepathy, despite despising it for the violation of privacy and sense of self reading and editing people's memories would have allowed me. My mother had taught me that the mind should be sacrosanct, it was where our consciousness resided, our sense of self. To violate that sanctity was worse than rape, and modifying the mind forcibly was no more or less than murder of the person that used to exist before the change. No, even if I had taken telepathy I wouldn't murder the kind, funny Dr. Meyer for the crime of discovering something about my power.

"That really is amazing, Dr. Meyer, and I would be happy to leave the portals running for now. But we really need to test my eye power." I said, gesturing to the plain clock on the wall of his lab. Over ten minutes had already passed, and I had no clue when Miss Militia would want us to roll out.

The good doctor looked at me oddly, like I was deranged for a second, before sighing. He shook his head violently, as if to clear it, and then took a big gulp of the coffee he had brought into the lab with him when he first arrived. "Of course, of course." He said, voice filled with resignation. He smiled gently. "I'm sorry my dear… sometimes I just get carried away with myself. Still, when we are done I will give you my card. I'd like you to think about letting me do a course of study on your portal power. You would not only be helping me out, but you would be helping mankind learn more about the universe." I opened my mouth, and he held up a hand. "Please, don't answer now, please just take my card, and consider it."

"Alright." I said. The next twenty minutes were dull in comparison. Dr. Meyer had me look through several different materials, spotting things hidden behind or inside of them while he took readings. Meanwhile, I kept the ports running so that he could continue to collect information from his sensors. We were finished with testing soon enough, and the good doctor put some notes about my eye powers into his computer. We chatted for a little while longer, talking about various mundane things. Nearly forty five minutes after arriving in the lab, I detected two people coming down the hallway toward my location, and one was definitely a parahuman. I zoomed in, and discovered Miss Militia and a heavyset blond woman who was a little older than the heroine, both of whom were headed in my direction. I took a quick glance at the blonde, before zooming in on her anatomy and looking harder. Shit… she was _messed up_! Shredded kidneys, scarred lungs, metabolic issues... you name a long term disorder that's caused by battle trauma, and she probably had it. Why hadn't they brought in Panacea or another healer for her?

I gave Dr. Meyer a heads up that company was on the way, and he scrambled to remove his sensors. As soon as his equipment was outside of the portals I shut them down. The swirling pits of darkness disappeared as if they had never been. The black haired scientist hung his head and sighed, looking as though someone had run over his dog. I snorted, wondering if he had bipolar disorder or something along those lines. People didn't normally swing back and forth to emotional extremes like he did, unless something was wrong. Well, it wasn't like he dwelled on it... he was happy again a moment later, intently studying a printed copy of the notes he had made on my x-ray vision. It didn't actually use x-rays, thank God… that would have been horrifying. Giving the entire City of Brockton Bay cancer was _not_ on my agenda.

Miss Militia and her boss stepped into the lab, where the doctor and I were sitting on stools and chatting about random things. We had been discussing muons before the newcomers arrived, which it turns out I can actually sort of see now, if I really concentrate on doing it. Bullshit magic eyeballs are bullshit. I stepped off of my stool and turned toward the door, acknowledge the director of the local PRT branch. She ignored my nod, and walked toward me until she was less than a foot away. I glanced down as her awkwardly, wondering just what in the hell is going on here.

I realized at that point that not only was being so close to a stranger extremely uncomfortable, I had _no ide_ a what the director's name was. The woman, who had a _very_ unattractive haircut, by the way, was studying my face intently, as if searching for something. I looked down into her face, in the just the same manner, wondering just what in the fuck this was all about. Before I could get too annoyed, however, the stocky blonde backed up to a reasonable distance, grunting unintelligibly.

"Helen of Troy," she said, like my nom de plume tasted bad in her mouth. "I'm Director Emily Piggot, of the Parahuman Response Team. Please; tell me why I shouldn't lock you up for potentially compromising my Ward's civilian identity." She growled.

In that moment I was incredibly grateful that I had chosen Divine Mind. If my ability to feel restraint hadn't been enhanced, then likely I would have attacked this pompous idiot on the spot. Enough of my rage leaked through my subconscious that my illusionary self was looking at her with a fierceness that turned the beautiful features on its face into something terrible. Involuntarily, Piggott backed up a step, placing her right hand into her jacket. She didn't actually draw the gun she had holstered there, not yet, or else I would may have had to do something regrettable.

Miss Militia was holding an enormous large anti-material rifle in her hands, a horrified expression on her face I noted that while the weapon was pointed at the ground near where I stood, the gun projection was not actually aimed at me.

I looked down at the pug-like face of the woman who had nearly committed suicide by cape. I don't think she had any idea how enraged I had been... If she had know how close she had brought me to the edge, then she likely would have tried to put me down already. Still, the naked hostility in my gaze had unnerved her enough to nearly draw a weapon on an unarmed woman in the heart of her own base of operations. I can only guess that Miss Militia was simply following this idiot's lead, as a good subordinate _usually_ should… The cape _did not_ seem happy about it, however.

I looked down at the director, my icy blue eyes narrowed. Now that I could control myself better, I looked more annoyed than psychotically outraged. "I'm sorry… did you just threaten to unlawfully detain me because I accidentally stumbled upon "your ward" storing lethal weapons in a public school?" My voice was as cold as ice, and I couldn't shake the feeling that this situation could easily go very wrong, very quickly, especially if this crazy bitch was actually serious about detaining me and not just trying to throw her weight around. 'Oh, look,' I thought, nearly panicking, 'I accidentally a fat joke!'.

Piggott lowered her hand, looking at me with a measure of… _something_... in her expression. Surprise? Or… could it be… _respect_? It was either that, or she was constipated. Still shaken up, my magic eyes quickly scanned her intestines, swiftly completing this dark task before I could command them to stop. I gagged at the wave of vile information that hit my brain, hiding the convulsion with my illusion powers. I could fool _all_ the senses with illusions, including sound thankfully.

'Yeah,' I thought, my brain feeling like it needed to be scoured with a brillo pad and then dunked in bleach, 'She _is_ making that face because she's constipated.' Goddamnit… For a moment there, I thought that my honest anger might have impressed her.

"I want you to know that you're treading on dangerous ground here, 'Helen'," said the PRT official, who appeared to be much more composed than she had been a moment ago. "You're obviously a new cape, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt… at least for now."

The stocky administrator looked at me piercingly. "Frankly, your power is _dangerous_. If you go around uncovering the secrets of parahumans, then whether you're doing the right thing or not, it won't be long before someone decides you're too much of a threat and simply end you."

I studied her for a moment before speaking. I concluded that Emily Piggott actually seemed to believe what she was saying. I could appreciate that I had complicated her life by coming down here in the middle of the night to give Piggott and her fellows the bad news that one of their junior supers may had gone off the reservation. I could even understand that the leader of the PRT was a very sick woman, and that I had woken her up in the middle of the night; she couldn't have been feeling very good, physically. Snapping and being upset I would have been fine with; shooting the messenger am not.

"I didn't come down here expecting to be praised, but your overly confrontational attitude is completely uncalled for." I said, causing her frown to deepen. "It could have been a plumber who found those weapons." I informed her. "There are pipes in that wall, and one of them was nearly rusted through in spots." I stared her in the eyes. "And doesn't the empire 88 have a cape whose projections can go through solid walls? What if he was near the school and found those arrows? What if it was practically any other Thinker besides me? You should be thanking me for being a good citizen, that I came to you rather than simply leaving your problem for someone else to find."

I snorted, my eyes hard. "Not to mention the reason I actually cared enough to let you know about the bullshit that someone in _your_ organization pulled... You could be learning that your junior hero fights crime with fucking hunting arrows when the morgue pulls one out of someone's body."

Piggott gave me a long look before turning around and marching back the way she came. I stared at her retreating form, wondering if every victory I achieved in life would feel this hollow. Probably just the ones that are completely meaningless, I decided.

"Militia, you and your new friend had better hurry your asses up." Piggott called over her shoulder when she was nearly too far away to hear. I looked at named parahuman, and she gave me a sympathetic look. God damn, if this is what it felt like just to _meet_ the bitch, then it was probably twenty times worse to be her subordinate. I'm very, very glad that I had decided that the wards had nothing to offer me. Between psycho Sophia and uber-bitch Emily Piggot I would have probably lost myself and gone carrie on the whole city within a week.

"Let's get this over with." I said to the woman in the modified woodland camo BDUs. She nodded, and we headed out. With our longer legs and better physical conditioning, we easily caught up to Piggott. We found her in the armory, where she was strapping on an extra-large flack vest, and attaching various weapons and gear to her rig.

"Emily…" said Militia, a note of concern in her voice. I got the impression that the boss lady didn't normally make a habit of putting on stormtrooper gear and going out in the field. Honestly, with the rough shape her body was in, she should probably be in a hospital, or at least in retirement.

"Your opinion is neither required or asked for, Militia." Said Piggott, her voice hard. "This isn't a combat op, we're just going to the school to secure some evidence." She finished affixing her gear, and then stood. Miss Militia looked like she was going to argue with the other woman, but her next words made her reconsider. "Besides," she grumbled, "I'm up, and after all of this there's no way I'm getting back to sleep. I may as well be doing something useful, like taking the first step in fixing a mistake I should never have made in the first place."

My real eyes went wide, but I took care not to let my illusory facade reflect the involuntary movement. Was she apologizing to me? I considered everything I had learned about Emily Piggott in the last few minutes, and compared it to the massive amount of psychological and social knowledge present in my brain. 'Yeah,' I thought, 'that was her telling me that she's sorry.'.

I _almost_ revealed my healing power, but I held my tongue for now. I seriously doubt she would let a new parahuman she just met use an untested power on her in the middle of the night, shitty, indirect apology or not. I would definitely want to test out my "Healing Hands" ability before using on a person for the first time anyway. While I was musing, Piggott was speaking into a radio communicator attached to her vest. Gesturing at us to follow, she lead us to an exit on the other side of the building and down a floor, which opened up into an underground garage.

The same squad of troopers who had suited up to counter any bullshit I tried to pull when I first arrived was waiting for us, with a PRT armored personnel carrier all ready to go. The head stormtrooper help his boss into the back, and Miss Militia and I follow.

Riding in the back of the vehicle was fairly uncomfortable. There were bench seats with four-point harnesses on each side, and lots of extra room in the read, presumable for equipment or prisoner transport. There were six seats in the back, and there were seven of us, which made things a little difficult. I offered to be the one who rode while standing, but Miss Militia politely told me to sit down, ignoring my protests. There were some handholds on the walls which she used to keep secure, so it worked out fine.

Before too long, we reached the school. The driver parked the APC, and the rest of us got out, still stretching our legs in relief despite the short amount of time it took to get here. Piggott had somehow managed to rouse Principal Blackwell and summon her to the school. The administrator was waiting for our party when we arrived, sitting on the top step at the school's front entrance. The severe looking woman was clearly tired, and she was gulping too-hot coffee coffee from a travel mug to try and make up for it. Blackwell had a much more severe scowl on her face than she normally did, and she was not shy about letting us know that she was unhappy to be here.

Piggott went to speak with the principal while Militia and I made small talk and the PRT agents secured weapons and double-checked their equipment. One of the troopers was carrying a bulky Tinkertech power tool with half a hundred functions, and another had a large bag containing a multitude of more mundane power tools. I guess I had known all along that they were going to have to cut through the wall where the cache was stored to get at it, but I hadn't really considered the mechanics behind it before now. Barring some kind of tinkertech phase shifter... or the active cooperation of the person who we were investigating... I doubted that there was another way to get the evidence out of its hiding place. I guess having reality altering powers was really starting to mess with my perspective, even after only one day of having them.

I heard some arguing between Piggott and Blackwell, the principal raising her voice a few times. Phrases like "unacceptable" and "disruption to the children's education" came from the school employee's mouth, while Piggott uttered words such as "need to know" and "random inspection of affiliate school's premises". Blackwell eventually complied with the PRT Director's demands and unlocked the front door, but she was clearly reluctant to do so. She looked at our procession sullenly as we prepared to head inside.

It was go time. The principal looked even unhappier than she had previously as she watched our procession march inside. Studying her expression, I think I detected a note of worry on her face. It took a moment to put all the facts together, but as the seven of us stepped into the main hallway of the high school, I realized that Piggott had not given her _any_ information about why the PRT needed access to Winslow tonight. While cold, I could definitely see the upside to doing things that way. If Blackwell was somehow in league with Shadow Stalker, then keeping her in the dark would be completely necessary. Likewise if she was one of those idiots that you often see who can't help but run their mouths about anything and everything. 'Still, I thought, 'it must be pretty shitty to be kept out of the loop when something like this happens to the school you're in charge of.'

The black haired school administrator walked over to her vehicle, her face drawn. She sat herself in the driver's seat, and started the vehicle. She turned on the heat and the radio, and sat completely still, her knuckles turning white from the force she used to grip the steering wheel. She didn't leave, though, and I realized that she would need to be here after the PRT and I were done cleaning up the mess that had been partially caused by her idiotic decision to use a "light touch" on Sophia. I decided to keep one eye on Blackwell throughout this endeavor. It's not that she herself was dangerous... I just didn't trust her. Blackwell is the type of person who would sell their own mother if she was offered enough, and I didn't want to see what she would resort to if she thought any of Hess's shit was going to land on her.

Blackwell had kindly turned the lights on for us, which made the hallways seem more like a place sane people would actually visit. When we first arrive, the unlit school hallways had reminded me of a scene from a 'B' horror movie. Oh, I could still see perfectly, even with the lack of light… but I had still been able to tell that it was dark and dreary, nonetheless. Piggott turned to me, her eyes all business now. There was none of the overt accusation in the way she looked at me before, none of the fire when she was arguing; only calm professionalism. I appreciated that.

"Ms. Troy; if you would, please lead my team to the location of the weapons cache," asked the head of the local PRT branch curtly.

"Sure. It's this way," I replied, gesturing. I walked slowly down the hallway, moving my head back and forth throughout the area I'd given for the location of Sophia's stash of backup vigilantism accoutrements. The other cape present walked by my side, her power taking the form of a large "fuck you" pistol, which was holstered at her side. Piggott walked two steps behind me at my other side, studying me intently. I guess the quasi-apology earlier from the PRT leader, and deciding to actually accept responsibility for this mess didn't mean that she trusted me. I guess I wouldn't either, if I were in her shoes. For all I know, this whole school could have been gone over with a fine tooth comb moments before we arrived. Like and idiot, I hadn't been observing it until we were nearby… I would have to start 'thinking long range', now that I could view any part of the city that I wanted pretty much at will.

It only took a moment to reach Sophia's Locker. "All of the items I saw earlier are still here. They're between the walls, directly behind this locker," I said, pointing at the offending storage container.

"Davis, Burns," ordered Emily Piggott, "Open it up."

The PRT agents carrying the powertools went to work. The guy with the normal tools, Burns, took out a small device which looked like a dremel rotary tool's beefier older brother. He attached a compact lithium-ion battery pack, and fired it up. The saw let out a quiet whine, which exploded a into a cacophony of harsh, high pitched sounds as he applied it to the combination lock which secured the metal storage space. A squealing razor orchestra serenaded us, for a second, and then cut out as the lock fell to the ground in two pieces.

Davis collected the locke and placed it into an evidence bag. He then proceeded to bag up everything else in the locker as well, placing as many of the items as would fit into larger plastic bags, which had serial numbers and places to record inform, just like the first. Afterward he stepped back with his loot, and the other tool wielding trooper took his place.

Burns was a stocky, well muscled woman of medium height. As she stepped up to the locker, she swung the large device into place, lining it up with the upper left-hand corner in the back of the locker. As I watched her working, I was her handle the Tinkertech powertool like it weighed nothing, which is most assuredly did not. She pressed a button on the Tinkertool after flipping a toggle, and a shimmering saw-like protrusion sprung forth from the tool's depth. My mind ran the numbers, and I discovered that the blade was exactly the right length and width to cut the back of the locker and about an inch of wall behind it, while the Burns stood as a comfortable distance.

The stormtrooper pulled a trigger on the underside of the device, and the blade began vibrating, causing the shimmering metal to take on a more reflective appearance. She touched the end of it to the seam in the back of the locker, and slowly moved it downward. As the blade dropped, it cut through metal and wood with nearly as much ease as my lightsaber could have, and without any of the issues that utilizing a blade made of magnetically contained plasma typically caused. I snorted in amusement; Tinkers were such bullshit.

It didn't take long before the back of the locker was sliced clean off. Burns pulled it out with some type of mag-clamp, which her Tinkertool also contained. Davis went back in with a crowbar after her colleague moved out of the way; he had to turn sideways a bit and get down on his knees to reach the back of the locker. The armor-clad PRT employee worked quickly, carefully removing pieces of drywall and insulation until the space behind the outer layers was completely exposed.

Between the large boards which framed the wall, we spied Sophia's downfall. Piggott scowled at the damning items, her eyes promising pain and suffering to the person responsible for their presence. I smirked with my real mouth under the more stoic illusion I wore, enjoying the moment immensely. No matter what happened to Sophia after this, I had won. Discounting my confrontation with Emma yesterday, this was the first taste of victory I'd had in the war with my tormentors. I found myself enjoying it a little less than I thought I would however, and it didn't take my vast mental power to figure out why. In the grand scheme of things, they were nothing more than a distraction, a stepping stone on my way upwards. I had easily laid both of them low, and with about as much effort as it would have taken to swat a pair of flies. Simply put, I was beyond them now.

Oh, well. It was a good excuse to introduce one of my new faces to the PRT, at the very least. Hopefully this would allow me to gain some credibility. The next time I needed something from them it should be easier thanks to the contact I had made tonight. I looked at Miss Militia, a look of muted sadness present in her delicate features. The PRT guys didn't seem to give two shits.

I glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 3:45AM. I had no idea how long my bullshit sleep illusion would last, but I needed to be home no later than 6:00, or by 6:30 if I _really_ wanted to push it. I didn't know if I would have to release the compulsion for Dad to be able to wake up normally, or if he would throw it off when his alarm clock sounded at half after six... but either way I absolutely had to be there unless I wanted to answer some very pointed questions.

One of the other troops, one whose name I didn't know, was meticulously collecting Shadow Stalker's indiscretions, labeling them with a pen as he sealed up each individual nail in her coffin. Miss Militia and Piggott had walked a few feet away, and they were speaking to each other in low voices. I didn't bother to read their lips; I didn't much care how things were handled from here so long as Sophia was out of my hair from now on.

Piggott turned to look at me, her expression still quite upset. She walked over to where I stood, her gaze never leaving me the entire time. Despite the fact that she wasn't any kind of threat to me physically, the PRT Director was actually kind of intimidating. I guess she would have to be, in order to reign in people who had superhuman powers. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to speak.

"Thank you for bringing this very serious matter to our attention, and for your assistance in this investigation, Independant Hero 'Helen of Troy'," she said formally, her words clipped. I could practically taste the simmering anger lying just below the surface. "We've come to a point in this matter where your security is not sufficient to-"

"Oh, shit!" I cried, my eyes wide. Piggott looked startled as I interrupted her, my exclamation erupting completely out of the blue. I had a very good reason for doing so, however… I had fucked up royally. I'd been watching Blackwell in her gas guzzler, as she listened to shit music on the radio and tapped on the screen of her smartphone. At first she had been playing some kind of crappy generic version of bejeweled, but at some point, while I hadn't been paying attention, she had switched to texting. I would have noticed a phone call, or something overt like that, but in my hubris I had seen fit to leave her phone's screen unobserved for the last fifteen minutes or so while we cracked open the wall behind the locker. It was a stupid, shitty mistake, and I felt like a complete idiot for making it.

And it was a pretty fucking awful mistake, too, because Blackwell had texted Shadow Stalker almost as soon as I stopped observing her phone. The school principal had sent three messages in total, to a contact that she had creatively named "S.S.". Yeah, she was a real mental giant, wasn't she?

The first text read, "Heads up. PRT is at Winslow. Might have something to do with you.".

S.S. replied with "What's going on? More details?"

Blackwell messaged her back with, "PRT Director is here w/ 2 capes and 5 officers. Wouldn't even tell me what's going on."

S.S. then said, "Shit. Thanks 4 teh info. Consider the favor I did for you repade."

The last message from Blackwell said, "No problem. You did me a solid, so I'm just returning the favor."

I rapidly scanned the area surrounding the school, my attention shifting outward in an ever expanding radius via the judicious use of my eye powers and super speed to increase the processing abilities of my superhuman mind. About a mile away, and rapidly closing in on the school, was a human shaped figure made out of shadow. She floated between buildings' rooftops using her Breaker state, going solid again on each rooftop and running to gain momentum between jumps. It wouldn't be long until she arrived. I doubted she intended to fight us, she was probably coming here to find out what the PRT was up to.

My blood ran hot and cold as I snapped out of my trance, which had lasted nearly ten seconds. Piggott was looking at me with suspicious in her eyes, and I could see that she had taken at least three big steps back from where she had previously been standing. The PRT guys were a little on edge. Miss Militia had come over to where I was standing, and she had been snapping her fingers in front of my face while speaking my cape name, trying to get my attention.

Using the most serious tone of voice I could muster, I spoke. "The school employee who's sitting in the SUV outside just set down her cellphone, so I took a look at the screen. She was texting someone called 'S.S.', warning them that the PRT and two capes are here to investigate them. I really strained myself, and looked way further out than I normally like doing… I can't see people, exactly, they just look like blank blobs normally. There's a blank blob moving over rooftops and sort of floating between them, which is headed this way. Maybe five minutes out at most."

"God _DAMMIT_!" Shouted Emily Piggott, her face turned crimson. "That stupid goddamn schoolmarm is going to fucking prison for this!" She growled.

"Helen, are you willing to follow my commands and the commands of my officers for the duration of this emergency?" The PRT Director asked me seriously, speaking as quickly as possible.

"Yes." I agreed immediately.

"Describe your powers to me, as clearly and accurately as you can in thirty seconds." She snapped.

"Visual clairvoyance, variable range. Creation of portals between any two places that I can see, though they can only move organic matter, no metals etcetera. Heightened reflexes, regenerative healing..." I hesitated slightly, and Piggott opened her mouth, her eyes narrowed. "Very short range telekinesis, manton unlimited." I whispered finally, causing her to abort her rant.

Miss Militia stared at me, her eyes wide, and one of the PRT grunts whispered "Holy shit," under her breath. I looked at the ground, as if upset at having to reveal my 'secret powers'.

"Ok, here's the plan," snapped out Piggott, "Militia, take off any synthetics now." The cape didn't even hesitate, starting to strip off some under-armor and a few polymer sheaths for various weapons that she had on, her modesty nonexistent in the face of orders.

"Michaels, Catz." she said, causing the two officers to snap to attention. "Saunter your asses up to Blackwell calmly and take her into custody. Make sure to secure her phone, then get your asses to the APC and brief Gutierrez and Horner on the situation. Tell Gutierrez to radio for cape backup while he takes that bitch back to base. You two plus Horner conceal yourselves near the entrance and try to take Stalker down with your tasers if you she comes in that way." The two stormtroopers bolted back to the entrance, slowing to a walk when they got within sight of the parking lot.

She turned to the tool specialists. "Burns and Davis. You two and I are going to secret ourselves in different classrooms near this position. If Stalker gets this far, take her ass down." She said. Two two troops grabbed their equipment and then entered two of the closer classrooms, while leaving the closest for Piggott.

"Troy, portal to the roof, now." She belted out, nearly making me jump. I was nearly in awe of her tactical acumen; she had set all of this in motion in less than two minutes! I could see one of the PRT agents she had sent outside, Catz, I thought, roughly slapping Blackwell into cuffs while Michaels collected the Principal's smartphone. As soon as I heard her words, I got with the program and made a portal to the roof.

"Militia, take a covered firing position on the roof. Use your 'bug zapper' as soon as you get a bead on Shadow Stalker." The cape, whose uniform was a bit disheveled, and somewhat less armored than before, hopped through the portal which showed a view of the roof. We saw her sprint toward one of the corners, which had three foot high concrete walls. She began looking around the grounds of the school intently. Her power reformed into something that looked like one of the ghostbusters proton accelerators, complete with backpack and a slim projector wand, which were connected together by a thick tube. She had manifested the wand with a night-vision scope on it, which she was using to peer through the darkness. Her power was total bullshit, I concluded.

"Troy; I want you to play spotter for Miss Militia. Point her at Shadow Stalker as soon as you see her arrive. If Militia can't hit her, I want you to use your portals to engage and attempt to capture our rogue ward yourself." Her face twisted into a rage filled expression , and I involuntarily took a step back, shocked at the sudden transformation. "You will capture Shadow Stalker non-lethally, or you will back off and let her escape." She snarled. "Do. You. Understand." She said,making it a statement instead of a question, enunciating each word carefully.

"Of course," I told her, my voice conveying the gravity that I was sure she needed. "I promise you that I will not seriously harm Shadow Stalker if I have to face her." I assured the PRT Director. 'Like I would sully my powers by killing _Sophia_ with them,' I thought with a mental grimace. She just wasn't worth it.

I leapt through the portal onto the roof, cancelling my portals when I was all the way through. I crouched down near Miss Militia's position, waiting for Sophia to arrive. The Protectorate cape had been close enough to hear Piggott's instructions for me, so she knew that I was going to be spotting for her. I could see that the PRT Party Van we had arrived in was a few miles away by now, and that the three troopers outside had excellent coverage near the school's main entrance.

Piggott and the two tech troopers who had dismantled the locker were all safely ensconced in their own private classrooms, beady little eyes, covered by high-end optics, pointed toward Sophia's deconstructed locker. Piggott had turned out the lights in the hall, which was something I hadn't even thought of. If Sophia managed to get passed Miss Militia and I, then a lit corridor at night might have made her bolt. I may have been and order of magnitude smarter than Piggott, but she had me beat out in terms of sheer experience… It would be a bad decision to get on her bad side.

We didn't have to wait long for our prey to arrive. I couldn't help but wonder what Sophia would think about my "Strength" if she knew about my real powers, or even about the watered down set that I had sold to the PRT. She probably would have taken up tripping me, that's for sure. She was floating through the air in a parabolic arc, aiming to land in the bleachers overlooking the track behind the school when I alerted Miss Militia. That was on the whole other side of the building from our current position, so the government cape and I quickly and silently relocated to the opposite side of the roof. By the time we got there, Sophia was nearly in view.

I watched carefully as the costumed teenager darted from the side of the bleachers to a gardening shed behind the school. She stood there for a few minutes in her incorporeal form, watching the school and waiting. I looked under her mask, and saw a grim look on her face, as well as a steely determination in her gaze. Clearly, this was not a happy girl. I used my gifted knowledge of sniper spotting to help Miss Militia aim her weapon, making sure _not_ to correct for projectile drop or wind resistance, as she was using a laser-induced electricity projector. If my engineering knowledge was correct, then it wasn't actually a Tinker weapon at all. The "bug zapper" was made completely out of mundane parts, though some of them were reverse engineered or "Tinker inspired". For all of its bulk, it was also a one-shot device… a limitation that was made moot by the weapon projecting cape's powers. If she needed more shots, Miss Militia could just reform the weapon with a full battery charge. What utter bullshit!

Sophia peeked her masked face around the side of the shed she was using for cover, like a little mouse looking out of its hole to see if the coast was clear. The woman in beside me in the tailored BDU's took aim at my whispered instructions, shifting her weapon until she could see the edge of Shadow Stalker's mask through her night vision scope. Sophia tensed, resting on the balls of her feet, by every indication intending to run for the school's rear wall, to the same place I had seen her phase through earlier today. At the last minute, however, she turned around and bolted back the way she came, spooked by something that even I failed to detect.

"Shit," I cursed, "She's getting away!" I opened a portal portal to the top of the bleachers, which would be a great vantage point if she went back the way she came from. Miss Militia let out a curse in a language that I didn't speak, and then chased after me. I had colored the swirling part of my portals a darker blue, so that they blended better into the night. We emerged on top of the bleachers just as Sophia rounded the side, and Miss Militia raised her weapon, then took a shot.

A crackling streak of white lightning erupted from the bug zapper, missing Sophia by inches when she spun on a dime and changed directions. She went into her Breaker state, darting _through_ the bleachers, and out the other side. Cursing again, I sprang over the top of the bleachers, and fell the thirty feet to the ground, cartwheeling as I landed to shed the excess velocity from my fall. I leapt into a run, darting after the retreating cape. I popped two portals into existence, one five feet in from of Miss Militia, and one on the school grounds, fifty feet in front of the direction Shadow Stalker was going.

My partner for the evening's events leapt through the portal, landing on the other side in a crouch. She shouldered the firing wand, and took aim at Shadow Stalker's center mass as I ran after the girl at a very fast pace, just shy of Mover speeds. Unfortunately, the girl I was running after _did_ have a mover rating, which she proved by shifting into her smoky alternate form and gliding every few steps. I cursed mentally, wishing that I had told Piggott that I had a mover rating rather than regeneration… I didn't want to make a liar of myself and hurt my credibility with the PRT by revealing that I had lied about my powers.

Miss Militia fired her BFG again, and just as before, the wayward Ward changed directions on a dime by kicking off the ground sideways and shifting into her breaker state exactly as Miss Militia pulled the trigger. I frowned; combat precog wasn't supposed to be one of Shadow Stalker's powers! Just what in the fuck was going on here? Deciding to end this charade, I opened a portal right in Shadow Stalker's face, just as she was changing directions, while opening the other end of the hole in space/time right in front my position.

The smoky cape flew through the portal in her breaker state, and emerged less than three feet in front of me in her regular human form. I didn't think that she shifted voluntarily, so the reversion appeared to be an effect caused by my portal. I decided that I would need to explore that further. I could see pieces of Stalker's costume get left behind during her trip through the spacial anomaly. Her miniature crossbows, arrows, mask, and several pieces of her costume dropped to the ground on the side of the portal as she passed through, leaving her wearing a wrecked, partially incomplete costume that was only held together by a few stitches.

'She must have had a lot of metal fasteners holding her outfit together,' I thought. The loose pieces of cloth covering her body began to flutter to the ground in dribs and dabs, leaving her shocked and open to attack. I grabbed onto Sophia's entire body with Telekinesis as she she stared at me with surprise and terror, her eyes wide with incomprehension at her sudden and inglorious defeat. Grinning ferally, I locked down all of the young athlete's muscle groups down, preventing her from moving in any way, shape, or form.

"Gotcha!" I crowed, giving her a big shit-eating grin. Man, who would have thought that hunting someone down like an animal was this much fun!?

I could see the young cape's arms and legs twitching under her skin as she fought to escape the iron grip of my mental muscles. It was for naught; as soon as I locked her down, the compulsory gun toter on the other side of the school lawn lit up the night with a blast from her lightning canon, putting the rabid dog we had been chasing down for the count. As soon as Shadow Stalker was hit, I released my hold on her. I watched in fascination as the teenager's body crackled with rivulets of electricity, the energy being partially absorbed by her body, though most of it flowed through her, disappearing into the ground. The caught cape's muscles spasmed like crazy, causing her to flop to the ground and shudder wildly. She continued to twitch for a few seconds before going mercifully unconscious.

I looked at Miss Militia's gun with jealousy, wishing I had one. Well, I could always build one, I guess… or something even better, using my Tinker knowledge. I determined to do just that; I was a little short of easily available long-range options, unless I was willing to call forth the big guns. I had high hopes for Telekinesis in the future; there were several science fiction and fantasy books I had read which demonstrated some very interesting uses for mental control over matter and energy. I would need to try some of them out, and figure out which, if any, of them I was capable of performing. That, however, was a matter for another time.

Miss Militia sprinted across the school lawn in seconds, and before I could say "Bob's your uncle" she was securing Sophia's wrists and ankles with strips of the teenage Ward's own torn costume. She pulled the dark skinned girl's hood down, covering her face from view slinging her over her right shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I blinked at the heroine's quick, decisive actions. She didn't seem to be superhumanly quick or strong, but she was definitely in peak physical condition. The Protectorate member also didn't seem to need to stop and rest at all; it was like she was built to keep operating at top capacity indefinitely.

"Nice comb technique with your powers. Can you make a portal back into the school?" She asked.

"Sure." I said, gesturing to a spot just in front of us. The inside of the classroom where we last saw Piggott appeared in the middle in the swirling blue tear in the fabric of reality, causing the overweight woman to level her taser at us. Her mental IFF caused her to relax, as soon as she recognized the people on the other side of the dimensional fracture. The director looked us over, assessing the situation in an instant. Her eyes flickered between Miss Militia and I, before settling on Sophia's bound, unconscious form.

"Good work." Said the blonde woman, from the other side of the controlled spacial anomaly. "Miss Militia, please step through and transfer custody of Shadow Stalker to Davis. We have velocity inbound in two minutes, and Armsmaster and Dauntless in another ten to fifteen. We'll have two more PRT crews here within the hour for suppression and cleanup as well."

The woman in the flag-themed costume stepped through the portal, and I followed after her. Soon enough, Sophia was being carted off by Velocity, who showed up sooner than expected. I watched the 'speedster' running as he approached the school, my eyes and the calculator which seemed to be built into my brain providing me with information about his powers. He was moving at just shy of 300 mph, which was under half as fast as I could move at my quickest. There was also something weird about his power… He was moving very fast, but the wind around him wasn't affecting him very much at all, and he seemed to be a little blurry. I kicked my vision power into overdrive, tearing through layers of reality in an effort to better understand what was happening here.

Suddenly, I understood. When he moved quickly, whole sections of Velocity weren't _here_ anymore… The effect was a little like my portals, but _not quite_. Instead of a hole that tunneled from one part of our own reality to another, the matter he was composed of was shearing through several different realities, like his body was some kind of fucked up multi-dimensional onion. Layers of his body were spread across a dozen different quantum realities, all of them connected together by a giant crystalline _thing_ that occupied all of the same dimensions Velocity interacted with... except for this one. The _thing_ that seemingly controlled the superhero's powers appeared to be some kind of computing device, with so many other functions thrown in that I couldn't count them in the seconds I spent observing it. It was so bizarre looking that it made my head hurt. It looked like something all the Tinkers in the world, M.C. Escher and a master jewelsmith would have collaborated together to create. Just viewing it made me feel sick to my stomach, and I broke off contact almost immediately.

 **.** **.** **.**

I stood there reeling, going over the bizarre information that I had just discovered. Just _what was_ Velocity? Some kind of Tinker creation, or an alien monstrosity masquerading as human? Was the crystal _thing_ his real body? My ramped-up mind suddenly had a strange thought… what if the _thing_ was the source of his powers? If that was the case, then other capes might also be connected to his crystal thing as well. I quickly scanned Miss Militia's powers, letting my eyes peel away the layers of reality behind the small knife on her hip. The mass of rainbow madness that was her powers (when it wasn't a weapon) also lead to a series of alternate quantum realities, inhabited by a slightly larger, more complex crystal _thing_ , thought it shared many similarities with Velocity's. It was definitely different, though. Did each cape have _their own_ giant crystal power generating computer?

'Holy shit.' I thought, 'This is HUGE!" Had I just discovered where superpowers came from? I think I did. Of course this discovery, like most of those which were truly worthwhile, lead to a shitload more questions than it answered. Foremost among them was: "Where do the crystal things come from?". They didn't look like living things, quite, though they were definitely made from biological materials. Another odd thing was that my Tinker granted knowledge base contained many similarities to the structures on both of the crystal… I couldn't keep calling them things… the crystal _power relays_ had parts which were very similar to many examples of Tinkertech which I had seen.

Surely the two facts couldn't be unrelated… It had been noted by several parahuman researchers that many pieces of Tinkertech were very similar to observed superpowers. I suspected that the reason for this was because the power relays granted the parahumans they were connected to either the ability to use their hardware directly, which allowed the cape in question to generate the effects themselves, or in the case of Tinkers, simply gave them the knowledge and technical knowhow to build thing which replicated the effects of the same powers. That neatly answered my earlier questions of why Tinkertech was either badly designed, or could not be replicated by normal people… The power relays _didn't want humanity at large to have powers_ , even machine replicated knockoffs.

I had been standing outside while thinking, after having been asked by Pigott to stick around for a bit until she could give me field debrief when things slowed down a bit. I looked through the school walls, and was surprised to learn that it was nearly 5:30… I would need to leave here very shortly. I would also need to think about the awesome, world-shattering revelations that I had uncovered tonight. I had some many questions that I could not even begin to articulate them at this point, and I felt that it would be a while before they were answered to my satisfaction. Thankfully, I would probably have a while to seek my answers… School had started on a Thursday, and today was Friday… School would definitely be canceled after the events of tonight, so I would have a long weekend to start unraveling this mystery.

My musings were interrupted by Emily Piggott, who strode out of the school, looking so sick and weary that my resolve to keep my healing powers hidden wavered once more. 'Surely,' I thought, 'Just a tiny bit of healing wouldn't hurt?'

The director and I sat in the back of one of the PRT trucks, and she had me go over the events of the night, from my perspective, while simultaneously taking notes by hand and recording my statements with a digital voice recorder. My voice was clear and succinct as I spoke, and it wasn't long before I had described my encounter with Shadow Stalker to her satisfaction. All the while my mind was awhirl; could I figure the mystery behind superpowers myself? Could I learn to replicate parahuman powers the my Tinker knowledge I'd been given, and my ability to view and comprehend parts of the power relays? Thankfully my illusion powers allowed me to appear attentive and unconcerned to the PRT Director.

"I'm always a bit leery of working with new, untested parahumans Troy... but I have to admit that you have proven yourself a valuable asset tonight. I'd like to thank you for the information you provided, and your assistance in capturing Shadow Stalker." Piggott paused a moment, before continuing, this time more serious. "I think it need not be said that any information about her identity is to be kept to yourself. In fact, I must insist that you sign a nondisclosure agreement to that effect. We take the secret identities of our heroes, even ones under investigation, extremely seriously."

"Of course, Director. I understand completely." I said, knowing that this was non-negotiable. If I refused to sign the form, then I could kiss any cooperation from the PRT in the future goodbye. I jotted a stylized version of my cape name down next to the 'X', dotting my initials next to a the three places it was required as well. As it went, the PRT's nondisclosure papers weren't that bad… They would merely sue me into the ground and make my life hell if I revealed Sophia's real name or face, not send me to prison or have me flogged with reeds.

"Thanks once again," said Piggott as I made ready to leave. She hesitated a moment, before holding out her hand for me to shake. I smiled warmly at her, pleased with the minor show of trust. I then proceeded to violate it horribly by using my powers on the woman without her knowledge or consent. From what I had seen, I don't think that Emily Piggott would have ever knowingly allowed someone with powers to use them on her, whether it benefitted her or not. Seeing how powerful and effective a leader she was as a virtual cripple, while deprived of sleep... God only knows what she would be capable of while in perfect health. I wanted to see that Piggott. I burned to watch as she used her newfound strength and wellbeing to accomplish great things for the city of Brockton Bay. My desires would become reality; I would force them to.

As we shook hands, I slowed down my perception of time using my super speed ability, and then concentrated on healing. I didn't want to heal her outright, this needed to be Subtle, with a capital "S". I willed an enormous helping of the healing energies I could feel resting inside of me to flow gently into Piggott gently, using the physical contact we shared as a medium. I directed the gifted power to pool inside of her without affecting the woman, lying fallow for at least a full day before doing anything. Afterward, the stored energies would slowly repair her damaged organs and systems, over the course of days or weeks. I could _feel_ that all of this was within the capability of my power... and as I commanded it, so it was. Reality and my divine gift bent to my command, and when we finished performing the ancient greeting of warriors and pulled our clasped hands aways from one another, there was absolutely no sign of my benevolent betrayal.

"Thank you Director, it was a pleasure. I look forward to working with the PRT in the future." With a salute, I opened an opaque portal to a spot only a few blocks from my house, and stepped through. Closing the spacial tear behind me, I checked for observers, and then went invisible and intangible when I found none. It took me only seconds to return home. Dropping my shadow state, I dispersed the illusion I had been wearing all night, and then changed out of my costume using Telekinesis. Forgoing a shower for now, I threw on the clothes I had gone to sleep in last night; a loose T-shirt and a pair of soft cotton shorts.'

Immediately after changing, I went to check on my father. I found him sleeping soundly, a look of contentment plastered across on his slumbering face. I checked on the illusion I had placed, and it was still present, though weakened by half. I estimated that it would last another five or so hours without my intervention before fading completely. Still, it would be diluted enough after another hour or two that normal outside stimuli, like an alarm clock, would be enough to wake him up.

Smiling down at my dad, I placed my hand on his chest. It began glowing, and I tricled healing power into his body, trying not to heal, but to discern what health problems he might have. I was dismayed to discover his extremely high blood pressure, and the blockage of several arteries. It was worse than it first appeared, too… Dad had some fairly serious damage to his heart, indication of at least two or three mild heart attacks in the past few years. There were also some dietary deficiencies, and a veritable host of micro-cancers from the abuse he had subjected himself to by not caring for his body properly. My face fell, tears streaming down from my eyes as I thought about how close I had come to losing my last living parent, without even knowing it.

"No!" I whispered vehemently. I would not allow this to come to pass! Under the force of my emotions, an enormous torrent of healing power burst from the hand I had placed on his chest. Vast quantities of a blazing, golden light burst forth, being soaked up by Dad's tissues as it streamed from my palm. Dad's body made use of the enormous quantity of power to repair itself to a pristine condition in less than a second. In my distress, I had used far too much power… a mere drop would have been enough to fix the small but serious ills which his body held, and I had used a river's worth. Some… unintended consequences followed my hasty action.

Dad's muscles started becoming far larger than they had previously been, swelling in size enormously as they drank up the power I was unwittingly feeding them. Noticing his bulging musculature, I panicked, willing them to become their normal size. The huge, powerful muscles shrank in size under my direction, all of the strength and power they had been given compressed into a package which was only a little larger than their previous sizes. The rest of his body had changed as well, though nothing standing out in so visually dramatic a manner as his muscle tissues had. The neurons in his brain were all firing faster than before, and his heart was pumping slower and more powerfully than a normal person's. Dad's bones were an order of magnitude more dense than those of a normal human, and their molecular structure was different, now... more like a crystal than regular bone tissue. His immune system had been ramped up, and I could see enormous, almost savage T-cells prowling my father's bloodstream… They looked like they were hunting for invading pathogens, which simply did not exist after the healing I had performed.

I continued to assess the stupid, idiotic mistake that I had made. I noted that Dad's teeth had all been repaired. I could sense that his… I blushed, looking away. My cheeks were on fire and I felt sick, like I was going to vomit in my mouth. There had been several... _enhancements_... to his downstairs, much to my everlasting embarrassment. That was something that I could have lived my entire life without ever finding out. I certainly hadn't will _that_ to happen! Did his subconscious play some role in how the excess healing energies were applied?

God, what the fuck had I _been thinking_ , throwing all that power at him!? I had nearly drained my reserve of healing energy. It had been enough to make me feel a little tired, like I had when I tried to sprint a block or two before I had become a Demigod. I could sense that my energies were refilling, but it felt like it would be a few hours before my healing tanks were topped up. I facepalmed with my free hand… Based on some quick calculations, I had used enough energy to fully heal over a hundred people just now, when all I had really needed to do was partially heal one man. It was good thing that this was a _healing_ power, or else all that energy might have caused him to explode or something… If it hadn't been used to enhance him, then the power involved actually might have done Dad some damage… his mortal body couldn't just hold on to that level of power without consequence.

'Oh, shit!' I thought. 'What am I going to tell him?' Looking down at the sleeping form of my dad, the changes I had wrought were fairly obvious, at least to someone like me who had seen him nearly every day of my life. The skin on his face was tighter than it had been and most of the wrinkles had disappeared, making him look at around a decade younger. The scar that had been on his chin, the souvenir of a college bar fight which mom used to tease him about, was no longer there either. His body was built differently than it had been; there was more size and definition in all of his muscle groups. He looked powerful now, like he had been working out for years.

I stood there for a few minutes, contemplating just how I was going to explain to my father that I was now a Demigod. I hung my head, ideas being thought up and then discarded as fast as they popped into existence. Maybe I could-

I was interrupted by a loud yawn. I snapped my head up, as Danny Hebert woke up on his own, throwing off my weakened sleeping illusion like it was nothing. He sat up in bed, blinking his eyes in surprise as he saw me standing at his bedside. "Taylor? Honey, what are you doing in here? Is something wrong?"

I gulped, sitting down beside him. I briefly considered covering him with an illusion of his previous self permanently, but I ruthlessly quashed that idea. I would slip up sooner rather than later, and it wasn't like Dad wouldn't notice how his body felt now, or the new things it should be capable of. Based on what I had observed, he was definitely going to be superhumanly strong and fast, not to mention much more durable; there was no hiding those things. Besides, he was my father… I wasn't prepared to betray him by lying about the fucked up thing I had just accidentally done. If doing it in the first place had been wrong, then trying to gaslight him into believing that his changes weren't real would be monstrous.

I dropped my own illusion, which I had been using to make myself look like the plain old Taylor of the day before yesterday. "Dad, there's something I need to tell you…" I said, taking in his wide eyes and surprised express. As I began explaining the fantastic things that had befallen me, I felt my father reach out and take my hand. His strong grip felt reassuring, and I continued talking, telling him about everything I had done so far since I had received my powers. I prayed that this would turn out alright.


	3. Demigods CYOA Choices

**The Demigod of Brockton Bay**

 **Double-Points Demigods CYOA Build**

Regeneration - 30 pts

Telekinesis - 30 pts

Divine Speed - 20 pts

Divine Resilience - 20 pts

Healing Hands - 20 pts

Divine Guardian - 15 pts

-True Form: 30 meter long Female Solar Dragon

+True Form Weapon: Solar Laser Breath Attack

-Human Form: Female Solar Knight

+Human Form Weapon: Solar Blade (Melee weapon with ranged attacks.)

Divine Beauty - 10 pts

Illusionist - 10 pts

Godly Mind - 10 pts

God's Eyes - 10 pts

Sixth Sense - 10 pts

Divine Weapon - 10 pts

-Double-Bladed Lightsaber (can separate into 2 short blades)

Martial Prowess - 5 pts

-Martial Arts: Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū

God's Personal Gifts: Portals Maker and Shadow Form - 0 pts

Total Points: = 200 pts


	4. Chapter 3

**The Demigod of Brockton Bay**

 **A Worm/Demigods CYOA Story**

 **Chapter 3: Shit Happens**

The conversation with my dad went surprisingly well. I suspect a large part of that was because he now felt like a million bucks thanks to his body being in better than perfect condition due to the healing I'd performed on him. It's fairly hard to be angry at someone when, thanks to them, you wake up with each and every old injury that has plagued you for years completely absent. As young as I was, I had already accumulated a few persistent aches; when they had been silenced thanks to my (supposedly) prodigious regeneration, it had felt amazing. I was reminded that I really needed to test the efficacy of my regeneration power, as well as that of my durability… I couldn't keep going into battles without knowing how much damage I could take, or how quickly I could recover from injuries.

As I took my father deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, he kept asking me more questions, until over an hour had been spent simply talking. Deciding that our conversation was much more important than work, he used one of his many stockpiled sick days and called the office to let them know that the boss would be out for the day. Dad got his buddy Kurt to fill in for him as head of the Dockworkers Union, as my father's longtime friend and coworker had sometimes done in the past. We checked the local stations on TV, and just as I thought Winslow was closed due to the PRT investigation, though the announcement didn't specify why class was canceled for the day. I'll bet that by Monday there would be rampant speculation about the unscheduled closure... especially among the students. It would be interesting to hear the rumors my classmates cooked up once school restarted.

When our conversation hit a lull, I quickly and efficiently made us a large breakfast using a combination of super speed and telekinesis, my dad watching from the sidelines, bemused at my antics. It turned out that every single area of his body had seemingly been enhanced by my healing power, to a lesser or greater degree. He was actually able to track me with his eyes as I blurred around the kitchen... thought afterward he informed me that it made his eyes ache slightly to do so. A tiny trickle of my mostly recovered healing power cleared that right up. When I was finished preparing our meal, we sat down to consume the scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, and pancakes that I had prepared. I ate at least a half dozen eggs all by myself, as well as four pancakes and a regular helping of everything else. I guess nearly overusing my "Healing Hands" ability had made me especially hungry. My appetite had certainly increased since the day before yesterday. Looking back, I found that I had been eating large portions at every meal since I ascended.

After polishing off our meals, Dad and I sat down in the living room to continue our talk. I had given him most of the highlights, explaining all about the God visiting me, my powers, the first day of school, and (most of) my activities last night. Now was the time for going over things I hadn't elaborated on during the retelling, and answering specific questions that he had. There were certain parts that I had been vague on, and things that I absolutely was not going to tell him. I guess that in that regard, I was no different than the average teenager. I was reminded during our conversation that my father was a massive geek.

"So you _actually know_ Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū!? Holy crap! Can you teach me?" He asked, his face animated from his extreme excitement. He looked fit to burst when I had informed him about my skill in that art… not that I had really bothered to review it yet, or to use those skills outside of the cool flip off of the bleachers that I had done the night before. I would need to make time to actually go over my martial arts knowledge soon.

"Uh, sure." I answered, nonplussed. Sure, martials arts are cool, but I can fly and make portals. How cool can hand-to-hand fighting be compared to stuff like _that_?" It's pretty cool..." I said, thinking of the acrobatics that I was easily about to perform now. "When you told me that it was the ultimate martial art back when I was a little kid, you weren't kidding! Why didn't you learn it years ago, if you're so interested?" I asked my father, slightly bewildered by how enthusiastic he seemed about the martial art I had selected.

It had seemed like a good idea to spend my last five points learning how to fight, because I had known exactly two things about hand to hand combat before I became a Demigod: jack, and shit. I had dredged my mind for styles of combat to choose from, when suddenly I had been reminded of my father telling me about the "ultimate martial arts style" back when I was a little kid. I remembered a few of the cool things my dad said that you could do with the techniques of that style, so I had put it down on the form.

Dad looked at me oddly. "Taylor… Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū, or 'Anything Goes Martial Arts' style is from a Japanese comic book called Ranma ½. It's not _a thing_ in real life…" he said, exasperated. "Or at least it wasn't before you asked a real live God to instantly teach it to you as part of your powers," he explained, making me flush. I certainly _had not_ known that. I kept finding myself in the position of _not being aware_ of knowledge that I actually did possess… It was like the vast stores of information and skill that I had been given were completely inert until I thought about something in particular, or purposefully decided to access a certain subject, in which case related knowledge would start flowing like water. I suppose it was better than having my personality change by all of that information being forcefully injected into my head at once, but it was a little odd to suddenly be wondering what the answer to a question on a test was, only to find that you suddenly knew the subject better than the instructor teaching the class. Not to mention weird.

"I'll bet that you haven't really explored your knowledge of the style, or else you would have realized that most of the techniques you can perform with it are more like cape powers than normal fighting moves." My father told me knowingly. Damn him for knowing me so well!

I looked at dad incredulously, before deciding to find out if he was exaggerating. I spent a moment mentally reviewing the information I had on my new fighting skill… and I was totally blown away by all of the _fucking bullshit_ that was present in the power that was supposed to be the weakest one I'd chosen. I was aghast! I had completely ignored something that should have been the cornerstone of my combat abilities since moment one.

'Holy crap,' I thought, 'I get all of this for only 5 points!?' I wondered if I could have picked more "fictional" fighting styles which were chock full of superpowers disguised as "techniques". Hot damn, I had received the bargain of the century! Once I synced my memories of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū with my physical body and practiced a bit I would be able to fake a few dozen additional powers, and enhance some of the ones I currently had. I realized sullenly that I hadn't even needed to purchase super speed, as my martial arts style allowed for ultra-fast movement… Damn it all! Well, come to think of it, Divine Speed _did_ have several advantages to it that my martial arts skills didn't possess, like the fact that it hardly tired me out at all. The fast movements in Anything Goes style were only meant to be used in short bursts.

"Holy crap!" I cried, my eyes opened wide at how broken the five-point power truly was. My dad laughed heartily at my shock, his voice booming. I hadn't heard him laugh like that in over a year… not since before mom had died. It was nice, and I decided that I wanted to see him do that more often. I would never willingly let our relationship get as bad as it had been again.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" He teased me, smirking at my surprise. "So… you _will_ teach it to me, won't you Taylor?" He asked, trying to be serious in the face of his obvious desire to learn the same fighting moves as the hero from his old comic books.

After Kyushu sank, the market for Japanimation and Japanese comic books had shrunk a lot, making the few that had been imported into the US, collector's items. Dad had a whole huge bunch of them, at least a hundred of the funny backwards comic books, maybe more. I had read a few, but some of them were really gross, which made me lose interest. Looking back, the stuff I had been grossed out by five years ago was really not that bad, usually kissing and the like. Dad _did_ have a box of comics in his room which I wasn't allowed to read, but I pretty much pretended that they didn't exist, after looking at them once while he was gone. The ones in his room really _were_ disgusting. I would need to try reading the regular ones again, especially if I could learn more about my newfound skills in the martials from them.

"Well," I said teasingly, "I dunno… Training you _would_ be pretty hard..." I gave him a wink and a smirk. He just dished it out... let's see if he can take it.

"Hmph." He said, actually pronouncing it like a word, "It's the least you could do for messing around with my body while I was sleeping." He bantered back.

"Oh my _god_." I said aghast, my face turning beet red. How could he phrase it like that!? What in the fuck was wrong with my Dad? As I looked at him with a horrified expression, the alternate meaning of the words he had used slowly dawned on my father.

"Oh shit! I'm sorry, sweetheart... I didn't mean it like that!" He babbled, speaking very quickly. "Fuck." he finished, smacking the palm of his hand against his forehead.

Daniel Hebert looked nearly as mortified as I did by that point, a mixture of disgust and extreme embarrassment present in his expression. I remembered when Dad was younger, he used to put his foot in his mouth all the time like that… and Mom had made fun of him mercilessly each and every time. He had been so quiet and withdrawn for the past year that this was the first time that I could remember seeing him perform one of his famous verbal gaffs.

"I'm sorry, Taylor." He said after a moment, speaking very softly. I could see that Dad had a repentant look on his surprisingly youthful looking face. "I'm just going to go to the bathroom, give you a little time to yourself. Neither of us have really had a chance to get ready for the day yet."

As he headed upstairs, I suddenly remembered one of the changes that I had unwittingly made to his body, the only one that I hadn't had the courage to tell him about quite yet. And I shouldn't even have added "yet" to my previous thought, as I never, _ever_ planned to bring it up. At all. Suddenly, his words from a moment ago set off alarms in my head, with _that_ taken into account. He was going to find out about it the second he took off his pants! I once more turned bright red, shuddering in abject embarrassment and disgust. I very sincerely hoped that my Dad would just thank his lucky stars for the "boost" that he'd been given, and we would never, _ever_ have to actually speak about… _it_ … for the rest of our natural lives. Please, God. _Please!_

I put the very uncomfortable topic of thought out of my mind as best I could, deciding to simply continue on with my life as if it hadn't happened. Yes, that's what I would do. As I headed up to my bedroom to get dressed and perform the rest of my morning routine, I heard a brief scream of alarm coming from my Dad's en-suite bathroom, followed by a cry of "Yes!" that was so loud it rattled the walls of the house.

I hung my head, cursing my poor luck at having to think about this fucked up subject once again. Well, it was my own fault for being an idiot with my powers. 'At least he's happy with it.' I thought. I shuddered, thinking about what might have happened if he _hadn't been_... I could've been forced into trying to reverse the change if he'd had a problem with it. At least I had been spared _that_ particular indignity.

 **.** **.** **.**

I got ready very quickly, but it was over half an hour before Dad skipped downstairs, looking extremely bright eyed and bushy tailed. He sported a huge grin, and he leaped over to me from the bottom step of the stairs, sailing over a good ten feet of carpet. He wrapped me in a huge hug and placed a light kiss on my forehead.

"You're my favorite child in the whole world, Taylor!" He said exuberantly.

"I'm your only child." I replied, deadpan. I was actually very happy with his upbeat mood, though. It seemed like I was getting my dad back. This was much more like his 'real' self than the mopey, uncaring man that I had barely recognized as my father.

"Anyway, uh... thank you for _healing me_ sweetie." He looked a little nervous, scratching his chin as his eyes darted back and forth. "It would have been really crumby to suddenly die of heart disease or cancer without ever knowing that I was sick in the first place." He finished quickly, as if he had to actually explain to me the specifics of why he was thanking me. Dad could be so weird sometimes.

Then he looked me in the eyes, his face gravely serious. "You really are the most amazing girl in the universe, Taylor. And now you know that I've always been right all the times I've said that to you… You're the one person in our whole world who was worthy to receive the power that you were given," he told me solemnly.

I leaned forward and embraced my father, tears in my eyes. "I love you, Dad. I don't want to lose you. You're the only family that I have left," I told him, my voice thick with emotion.

"I know, honey. I feel the same way. I want you to work really hard, though, and make lots of friends from here on out," said dad, his tone of voice a little less serious now, "Maybe even a boyfriend someday." He chuckled.

I laughed. "Maybe. I'm don't think I told you earlier, but I met someone at school yesterday during lunch. Her name is Cammy, and she seems really nice." I told him happily.

"Met someone, eh?" He asked, waggling his eyebrows. "Maybe I should have said 'girlfriend'?" he asked, as if to himself.

I playfully slapped his arm. "Daaaad!" I mock-whined, embarrassment turning my cheeks pink.

God, he was such a _man_ sometimes! I didn't even think I liked girls that way… did I? I had never really dated, and discounting the last forty-eight hours it had never really felt like I was a sexual being. Sure, I had thought certain boys were cute or particular girls were pretty, but nothing really got my motor running if you know what I mean. I had always told Emma that my "type" was big, muscular guys, but some of that was because those were her favorite types of men, and I wanted her to think I was cool like she was. It was also partly because I had _wanted_ to like big strong guys, if that makes any sense. Crushing on big hunky men was normal... easily understood. I didn't have to think about the fact that I might be different somehow. Using my new fount of information, it seems likely that I had either been damaged emotionally, or that I was nearly asexual before my _everything_ was upgraded. It's likely that becoming a demigod, or one or more of the powers I chose 'fixed' my broken sexuality. I was a strange topic of thought, but I needed to confront it in order to learn more about myself. I wasn't going to lie to myself any more, about _anything_ , not after deluding myself and rationalizing had been the cause of so much of my suffering. _Never again._

Now that I was thinking about it, I _had_ been experiencing some fairly lustful thoughts about some of the people I had been spying on with my "Godly Eyes" … I could see underneath the clothing of anyone I chose, and I had been choosing to peep on nearly every person I could see who was physically attractive. I hadn't been thinking too deeply on this matter while spying, but now that I was taking a moment to examine my emotions, I had to admit to myself that I had really enjoyed examining other women's bodies. Cammy and Miss Militia for instance, were both _very_ _nice_ to look at. The thought of their naked forms caused a warm feeling well up from my tummy, nearly making me shudder in desire. It was almost disturbing how hot just the idea of actually touching them, or making out with a pretty girl was making me. 'Am I a lesbian?' I wondered.

On the other hand, I also really enjoy looking at men's bodies... especially their genitals… _most especially_ the really big ones. I didn't really like men's faces or bodies as much as those of women and girls, but they were still nice enough to trigger that little tingle in my panties. I'm probably bisexual, I realized, with a slight preference for women over men. God... I felt like such a pervert admitting these things to myself, even in the privacy of my own mind. Not enough that I was actually planning to stop spying at people's nude bodies, but it still made me feel a little skeevy to be having these thoughts.

I switched my train of thought, returning to the present. I didn't need to be examining my sexuality in the middle of a conversation with my father. Before my mental sojourn, my dad had been ribbing me good naturedly while I teased him back. I don't know what he thought when I had simply trailed off for a moment there, but he was looking at me oddly now, as if I had done something strange. It made my face flush slightly, bringing a slight glow to my perfect cheeks. I decided to change the subject.

"So, Dad… How would you like to go somewhere where you can train a bit with your new upgraded muscles? We both have the day off, so I can give you some tutoring in the martial arts as well." I smirked, waiting for him to bite.

I didn't have to wait long; in less than a second my father was standing right in front of where I was sitting on the couch, crouched down so that we were looking at each other eye-to-eye. _Holy shit_ , you would think that _he_ was the one with super speed based on how quickly he had moved!

"Do you actually mean it, Sweetheart?" He asked, raw hope and excitement in his voice. "You'll teach your old man the secrets of the 'Anything Goes' style?" he asked, a pleading note in his voice. I chuckled at the role reversal; I had often begged him for something that I wanted the same way when I was a little girl.

"Sure thing, champ. And if you do a _really_ good job, then I'll even take you out for ice cream afterwards." I responded with a smile, really playing it up.

" _Ice cream!?_ Can I get sprinkles!?" He squealed, seemingly even more excited about getting a frozen treat than he was able to learning secret martial arts techniques that would put him on the same level as some of the most powerful capes there were.

"We'll have to see how it goes… _Sprinkles_ are for _winners_." I told him mock seriously.

Dad laughed heartily at my over the top acting. Pocketing his truck keys and grabbing a coat from the hook, he prepared to leave, gesturing for me to follow. I stopped him before he could open the door. "Hey, Dad… How would you like to _fly_ there?" I asked him.

"Wow… Uh, I don't know, Honey. Flying in the middle of the day, in front of everyone? It _is_ safe, right?" He looked at me with wide eyes, hesitation clear in his expression. I smirked at him.

"I can turn invisible, remember? And of course it's safe!" I replied, taking his hand. Before he could say anything else, I had taken us both into Shadow mode. We flew upward, passing through the roof of the house and then into the wide open sky. Dad's hand clenched mine tightly, with enough force that I suspect his overpowered mitt would have pulped a normal girl's fingers. It barely felt like anything to me, just a sensation that indicated somewhat greater than normal pressure.

I held onto my father tightly as I telekinetically propelled us through the air. We moved at lightning speeds, flying even faster than I could run. The ground passed by us in a blur, cars and faces disappearing too quickly to make out. I let out a whoop of unadulterated joy as we passed the sound barrier. Thankfully there was no sonic boom to ruin everyone's day, as we were still in shadow mode, completely intangible to the world around us. I looked over to my father flying beside me, our clasped hands allowing me to share my shadow power with him. Dad's expression was one of excitement now; he had apparently lost his fear somewhere around Mach two. I grinned, enjoying his happiness nearly as much as the flight itself. I shot him a smile, which he returned. I'm so glad that I shared this part of my life with him. I knew with every fiber of my being that hiding my superpowers would have eventually ripped our relationship apart at the seams.

It didn't take long before we reached our destination. We were on the outskirts of Brockton Bay, hovering above a small forested area that I had spotted from our house. I had looked for somewhere suitable to train before we left, and this was one of the best spots that I could find. It also had the benefit of being very scenic. I took us down, setting us in a rough clearing in the woods. The open area we stood in was roughly three hundred feet in diameter, and over twice that in length. The edge of the large clearing was ringed with trees, several paths leading through then so that the local wildlife could graze here. We were miles from the nearest person out here... there were no trails, vehicles, or anything else man made for over a mile in any direction. This was a spot of wilderness that had been only seldom touched by man, and lightly at that.

Dad looked around, his gaze filled with joy. He had always loved the outdoors, and he had tried to share that with our little family. Unfortunately for him, mom had loathed camping. "This should do the trick." He commented. "By the way, Taylor… please tell me the before you do that next time, OK?" It was phrased as a question, but it quite obviously wasn't.

"Sure thing, Dad." I said, rubbing the back of my neck in slight embarrassment.

"Ok, then…" He said, brushing his hands together as he looked around. His face split into a huge grin as started forward. "Let's see if your old man can uproot a tree." Said my father, as he walked over to a young oak.

Stretching his arms wide, he gave the enormous plant a big hug, digging his fingers deep into the bark where he held onto it at each side. Dad had bent his knees before grabbing the tree, and once he got a really good hold of it he heaved, pulling upward with every ounce of the force that his body could generate. He managed to partially tear the roots out of the ground, yanking over half of them from the earth. The roots caught before the tree was fully uprooted, halting his upward motion abruptly.

This caused the extremely strong man to overbalance, sending him stumbling to the rear of where he stood, tree still clutched tightly against his body. Dad tripped over his own feet, falling backward, the tree following after him. I sighed, catching the fifteen-foot-tall oak with telekinesis just before it crushed my father. I was a bit disappointed with my father… he had apparently gone retarded while I wasn't looking.

'Or maybe trying to lift the heaviest object that you think you might possibly be able to heft is just a guy thing?' I wondered. Naw… that would make the _entire gender_ slightly retarded. That wasn't the case, was it? I hoped not.

"Jesus, Dad!" I cried, annoyance clearly present in my tone. "What the hell are you thinking? That tree weighs over nine tons! You can't lift that much." I said, looking at him crossly.

I gestured to my right, absently tossing the tree almost to the other end of the clearing. I winced a little when I saw the massive piece of raw lumber crash into the ground. The force of the impact sheared off most of its limbs, causing leafy branches to go flying in all directions. The log, which had been rendered mostly bare by the rough treatment we had subjected it to, rolled some good ways until it smacked against a couple trees at the edge of the clearing. It was still moving at a fairly good clip when it impacted the pair of maples with a loud 'thunking' sound, like two coconuts being smacked together.

We both started at where I had thrown the tree, then turned to look back at each other. My father and I simultaneously began laughing loudly, tears coming to my dad's eyes as he picked himself up on the damp, dirty ground. I strode over to where he stood, the back of his jacket and pants smeared with wet soil and grass. It looked like a mud golem gave him a swift kick in the ass. Still chuckling, I used a burst of finely controlled telekinesis to strip the dirt and water particles from his clothing, rendering him completely clean and dry.

"Thanks Taylor. I guess I was being a bit of an idiot there, wasn't I?" He asked, chagrinned.

"Maybe a little bit." I agreed. "It's not quite as bad as me shooting a million volts of healing power into you, though." I told him, to take the sting out of his lapse of judgement. And maybe because I still felt pretty bad for doing that without his permission.

Dad sighed. "Sweetheart, please don't keep beating yourself up about that. I really, really like the results, and I trust that you'll never do something like that again without the permission of whomever you use your power on, right?" He asked, his voice soft and non-judgmental.

"Yeah, you're right." I agreed, my voice subdued. I hadn't told him about covertly healing Piggot, fearing what his reaction would be. If anyone discovered that I had used my powers on the head of a PRT branch without her permission, then I was looking at "assault with a parahuman ability" charges being brought against me. Call me crazy, but I really didn't want that to happen.

I hadn't given the blonde PRT leader as much energy as I had filled my dad with, and I hoped that meant she wouldn't experience any side effects. To assign the amount of power I had used a numerical value, I had given Dad around one-hundred units of healing energy, and Piggot somewhere between thirty and forty-five units. It seemed like my healing power refilled its energy reserves faster or slower depending on how much energy I had left in the tank. When I only used a tiny bit, then it would refill itself faster than I could actually use it. When I used nearly all of it, like I had with my dad, then my reserves took somewhere between two to four hours to refill, depending on how much I was resting, eating, etcetera.

I had a strong 'feeling' that if I ever completely exhausted my healing power, then it would take at least a full day before my energy refilled... maybe even longer. Unless I planned to start manufacturing Brutes, then I shouldn't ever need to use all of my healing power up... or even a significant fraction of it. The amount of power I had expended to set up Piggot's delayed reaction healing had refilled itself in less than ten minutes. That meant that it would be a good idea to try and stop using it for a while when my healing energy was halfway exhausted, or else it would take much longer for it to replenish afterward. That shouldn't be too hard.

Speaking of healing, I needed to find out if pulling that tree out of the ground by the roots had injured Dad at all. He was the type of guy who would never tell a soul if he was hurt, unless he had to for some reason. "Did you hurt yourself pulling out that tree, Dad?" I asked him seriously.

"I'm fine Sweetheart." He replied, his words spoken a little too quickly for my liking. I looked at my father coolly, a frown on my face.

"Give me your hand." I ordered, my eyes hard. I'll be damned if I was going to let him walk around injured when I could heal him as easy as breathing. This macho bullshit was simply not going to fly with me from now on.

"Taylor…" he started to argue, before he saw my expressing. Sighing, he conceded in the face of my superior stubbornness. With a roll of his eyes, Dad held out his hand to me. I gave him a sweet smile, to reward him for doing what I had asked. He was learning!

I took my dad's hand, using a miniscule trickle of healing power to assess his physical condition. Some of the muscles in his arms and back were strained a little, and his fingers were bruised and stressed from being used to lift up a fucking full grown tree. There was not an iota of damage to his bones, which I suspected were many times more durable than the rest of his body due to their impressive makeup. I would need to find out if I could augment my own body like I had inadvertently done to his at a later time. A tiny spark of healing power eliminated all of my father's injuries, and another sent waves of relief coursing through his body, removing any fatigue or stress that he had accumulated since he woke up. As I had previously seen, my healing power was refilled to maximum as soon as expended these tiny fragments of energy. I let my dad's hand go, and gave him another smile.

"All done! Feel better?" I asked cheerily.

"Very much so," he replied, sighing in relief at the lack of pain. "I'm sorry sweetie, I'm not used to having a super powered healer for a daughter. Usually I don't like to complain about my aches and pains, because there's not really anything that can be done for them. It's always felt a little too much like whining." He explained. "Now that you can actually _do something_ about it, I'll have to work on that," he offered with a smile. I nodded my understanding at him, glad that he had shared that with me. Even a day ago simple exchanges like this between the two of us would have been nearly unthinkable.

"So, we've discovered that you're strong enough to uproot a medium sized oak tree... but not strong enough to pick it up." I said with a little grin. "Thanks to my super powered brain and the information my eyes and healing power have given me, I have enough to grade your strength and durability." I told him, numbers and equations blurring through my mind.

"Really?" Asked my father, surprised. I got the impression he thought it would take much longer. "So, how strong am I?"

"You should be able to pick up around 12,000 lbs., or six tons, without damaging your body at all. You won't be able to move around with that much weird very well, however. If you lock your legs and get your arms into a good position, though, you should be able to hold your max safe weight while standing still pretty much indefinitely, due to how strong your bones and connective tissues are." I said.

"Whoa," said dad, his eyes shining with wonder.

"Yeah." I agreed. "As far as carrying or throwing goes, I wouldn't try to move over 4 tons at most, and obviously the less you carry, the further you'll be able to throw it, and the faster you can move." I supplied.

"That's amazing!" Said my dad. "I could toss a car quite a ways, couldn't I?" He asked, excitement filling his voice.

"Yep, you're now a card carrying member of the car-slinging club. I figure you could throw an average sedan several dozen feet, easy. Maybe more." I chuckled, imagining my dad getting out of his truck and muscling other cars out of the way the next time he gets stuck in a traffic jam. "As far as durability goes, it's a mixed bag. The good news is that your bones are nearly unbreakable; they're providing support and anchor points for your muscles and other tissues, allowed other systems to perform better than they usually could. Your muscles are extremely dense, and to be able to exert the forces they do, they have to be extremely strong. Your connective tissues are phenomenal; they're extremely resilient, and almost as tough as your bones." I paused.

"Now the not so good. Your skin… is maybe three times stronger than normal, as are most of your other tissues and systems. This includes all of your organs except for the heart, which is a muscle. That means the limiting factors of your durability are your organs and skin, really. You get shot or stabbed, and you will bleed normally... though a bullet or blade won't be able to penetrate your bones or muscles unless there's superhuman force behind it. If you get hit hard enough to make your muscles get damaged, the organs behind of them will get hurt. You can still bleed to death fairly easily if someone gets you in the throat, or other areas unprotected by muscle tissue." I explained, looking at the ground. All in all, Dad was _much_ stronger than he was tough.

"I see." Said dad, looking pensive. "I guess that means that I'm not quite Alexandria, huh?" He asked, adding in a fake chuckle.

"Well, you _could_ be. Maybe." I said. "I'd like it if you would let me try to enhance your skin, and if that goes well, your organs." I told him bluntly. "I could definitely use your help with my plans to save this city, Dad, but if you're going to be a Brute-type cape, then I need you to be able to take a hit or two without getting seriously injured… or worse." I was hoping that he would let me do this, if not for himself, then for me. That's why I phrased it the way I did; I felt that it would lead to more cooperation than if I just told him that I didn't want him to die.

"Are you sure that it will work alright sweetheart?" He asked quietly, his eyes serious.

I had actually been thinking about that a lot, dedicating a large portion of my brainpower to the problem after I'd accidentally upgraded him earlier this morning. I had come to the conclusion that my ability to upgrade people was not purely a function of my healing power, but rather an interaction between healing, telekinesis, and godly mind. My healing energy was the power source for this ability, and the vector by which I effected the changes, but it would not have been possibly to make such sweeping changes without the other powers and the information I had received from both parahuman and mundane sources, gained via Godly mind.

I also had a hunch that most of Dad's upgrades were influenced by his subconscious. I had supplied the energy, and when it proved to be too much to simply heal him the excess power had needed an outlet so that it didn't kill my father. I must have unconsciously used telekinesis to direct the healing energies to modify his tissues in ways it was not originally designed for, and tapped into the vast pools of information available to me, in order figure out how to actually design and implement the changes. Reviewing everything I knew about parahumans, I suspected that many of the ideas for dad's augments had come from the power relays I had scanned, and the Tinker knowledge base… A lot of his modifications were very similar to those of regular "Brute" class parahumans.

"Yes. I have a very good idea of how to direct the changes I want to make this time, so that upgrading your skin and organs will be the only things to change. Last time, I wasn't directing the energy I poured out in any way, other than willing it to heal you. It looks like most of the upgrades were actually chosen subconsciously, by you, in order to use up all of the extra healing power, so that it wouldn't hurt you." I explained to him.

Dad blinked, and cocked his head to the side. "Huh… that actually makes sense. So, if I subconsciously want a different type of change than the ones you're trying to make, will that screw things up?"

"Wow, that's a very insightful question, Dad. No, I don't think so. It's my power, I'm the one who directs it by default. The only situation where you would be able to do that is one where I'm feeding an enormous amount of power into you, without trying to make it do anything at all."

"Surprised that your old man actually has a brain, sweetie?" he asked with a grin. "Don't be; when I was in college I was even in a club that only accepts smarter than average people. It's called 'Mensa'... maybe you've heard of it?" He grinned at me, taking stock of my slightly surprised expression. "That's actually where I first met your mother, though neither of us went to the meetings all that much. A lot of the people there were total snobs, and you know how much I dislike people like that." He explained.

"Dad… you and mom never told me that you're geniuses." I said, surprised by this information. Sure, I had known that my mom and dad were smart people, and that I was likewise fairly intelligent, but not that we were all apparently in the upper 1% of humanity in terms of brainpower.

"That's because it's not really that big of a big deal, Taylor." He explained. "Your IQ is only an indicator of your potential for learning, not the end-all be-all of who you are. Your personality, your work ethic, your capacity for love and understanding… all of these things are more important than your raw intelligence. I've seen people on the docks who were smarter than me, who got fired for slacking off too much or making the same stupid mistake over and over again. I've also seen guys who were in the 'special needs' classes in school, who are some of the nicest, most reliable, and hardest working folks that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing."

Daniel Hebert's expression softened. "Your mother and I didn't want you to think that you were better than other people just because you're smarter, or that the people around you mean less because they don't share your gifts. I'm very pleased to see that it worked, because as you've grown up, I've been able to watch you became the amazing, understanding woman that I knew you would grow into."

"Thank you Dad," I said, my eyes misty. I gave him a hug, and we were both feeling pretty good when we parted. "I love you too."

"I want to help you, sweetie. Go ahead and give me the upgrades… Just try not to change anything else, OK?" Had asked, half joking and half serious. I nodded, once again taking his hand.

I pulled on my healing energy, using it to scan dad's body. I memorized the current state of his skin, finding that there was a function that stored data already present in my healing hands power. This data store appeared to contain a library of information on everyone and everything biological that I had examined or used my healing power on in any way, shape, or form. It even included the genetic sequences of all the bacteria and viruses that I had touched while healing hands was active. I looked down at the hand holding my father's, my eyes wide. This was amazing!

I was shocked to see a full set of information on my dad's original body in my healing archive, including all of his old health issues, and a full copy of his genome. My own information was there as well… both a copy of my old body's state and genetic code as it was seconds before I was transformed into a Demigod, and another copy of my body and state after that life-changing process. The presence of my bio-data answered one of my biggest questions…evidently I _could_ use healing hands on myself. I felt a little stupid for taking Regeneration for a moment, before I thought about how hard it would be to heal myself while fighting someone strong enough to injure me to the point that I needed healing in the first place. Yeah, on second thought I was glad that I had taken regeneration.

Knowing that I was much tougher than my father, and indeed most capes with Brute power, I checked to see if I could somehow use my own upgrade to give my father a similar amount of protection. I studied the information on Divine Resilience contained within my healing power, trying to figure out how it worked. This power was incredibly complex, and even my heavily upgraded brain struggled to understand the supernatural power. The mode of operation by which Divine Resilience functioned was two-fold. There was an odd field of energy that suffused my entire body, which I did not recognize; I guessed it was an active component of sorts. There were also physical components, which were… extensive. It looked like each and every part of my body had been optimized to resist damage on a micro scale, as if I was now less of a human being, and more an armored machine made to survive a war.

My cells were 'hardened', the walls made out of an organic armor which was selectively permeable, allowing them to function perfectly as regular cells. I doubt that even ice crystals would destroy them, meaning I could conceivably be dropped into a freezer and thawed safely in a few years. The cells also somehow became tougher the tighter they were packed together. This meant that these super-cells leant a level of damage resistance to my body that increased by orders of magnitude as the complexity of the structure they were a part of scaled up; first as they formed tissues, then organs, then an entire system. By the time you got to the organism level, I was already ridiculously tough, and this was only one part of the physical side.

Each of my organs had been redesigned to eliminate any soft spots or weaknesses, and they were all surrounded by their own reactive organic armor. When I studied my bones, I nearly gasped. _This_ was where the design for my dad's bones came from. They were a cheap rip-off of my own, which were superior in every way to his. They were composed of the same basic elements bones were, but arranged in such a way that they formed an unknown organic substance for which there was no name or description in any of the information I had been gifted. Like dad's they were crystalline, but they were more tightly packed and much, much stronger. I didn't know of any metals or carbon allotropes which had a higher tensile strength or hardness.

My skin was the most interesting part. It was an organic armor composed of polymerized macromolecules; huge chains of a protein-like substance that formed long ropes the width of a single cell. They had a tensile strength which was simply unreal, and the capacity to absorb kinetic and thermal energy like a sponge absorbs water. These strands were woven into an ultra-fine mesh, which had the exact same appearance, texture, and color as ordinary skin. I learned why I had been so much more sensitive to touch since my ascension; my skin didn't actually have nerves any more… rather, it was all one huge piece of nervous system tissue. The living macromolecules acted like super-neurons, carrying information to my souped-up brain faster and better than any nerve in the history of biological life.

There were dozens of other physical adaptations which operated on a smaller scale to increase my toughness, but I didn't want or need to list them. The energy field and the physical enhancements seemed to work together, raising all of their protective abilities to insane levels. The radiation from the energy field felt a little like my portals, and my healing hands power, making me think that it might be some kind of "magic", the power source for my abilities which was referenced in the documents that the God had me choose my abilities from. I had noticed that my powers had a sort of fluidity to them, which electronics and parahuman powers lacked. If I had to put it into words, I would say that magic allowed an ability or power to perform the _spirit_ of its intended function, despite what ended up happening physically in the real world.

If I understood correctly, magic should allow "Divine Resilience" to help me resist damage from _any_ given attack, no matter if this power had the capability to do so or not according to causality and the physical rules of the universe. If my observations of Velocity and Miss Militia's power were typical of all capes, then that meant parahuman powers weren't 'psionic' or supernatural in any way, but physical and dimensional. That meant that master powers, force fields, lasers, telekinesis, etc. were all physical effects… meaning that Divine Resilience would render me either completely immune to them, or at the very least highly resistant. Sure, some of the more exotic or powerful effects would likely still damage me, but I was much better off than I had first thought.

Additionally, regeneration should render me more resistant to most of these effects and powers for similar reasons. At the least it would help me recover from powers that could actually harm me very quickly. My brain spun, running through the implications of my thoughts… The implications were staggering, but I needed more data; _much_ more.

One thing that I definitely wanted to do, and as soon as possible was to learn more about Master and Stranger powers. If it was as I suspected, then all of their effects were actually transmitted via targeted "Blaster" and untargeted "Shaker" powers as vectors to deliver these powers to the people who were affected by them. Unless I was missing something, then there should be actual signs in the brains of the victims of such powers that indicate they are being controlled… signs which I should be able to pick up on easily, using the diagnostic function of healing hands.

If I can isolate the vectors Master and Stranger powers are transmitted on, I can neutralize them. If I can come up with a method to stop these types of powers from affecting the brain physically once delivered, I can neutralize them. If I can create a device to simultaneously reverse the changes made to the brain or nervous system by M&S powers, I can neutralize them. With assholes like Heartbreak, Nice Guy, and Valefor running loose in the world and turning people into their willing slaves, it would be a minor miracle if I could come up with a means of rendering their powers moot. It would be a worthwhile project… I would just need to find a few masters and strangers to help me get the data I needed.

I finally returned to my current task, doing my best not become fascinated with the mechanisms by which my godly abilities and the powers of parahumans operate. I studied the physical part of my skin and organ upgrades, and focused on applying them to my father's body. I let my power guide me in this task, feeding it only as much power as was required to replace his existing tissues with the enhanced versions that I possess. The difference from before was as great as night and day; rather than a veritable flood of unrestrained power, I fed a controlled stream into my father's body, directing it to suffuse each part of his body that I was rewriting.

I saturated every one of my father's internal organs from the neck down with healing energy, as well as the entire surface of his body. When these tissues were full of power, I willed the energy filling his tissues to transmute the flesh there into the desired forms. While I was at it, I also changed his bones into the same material mine were made of, rather than the knockoffs he had first been given. It took maybe two minutes to accomplish these tasks once I began. Altogether I had used barely 20 units of energy to increase my father's durability by at least two orders of magnitude. From experience, I knew that I would be able to recover that amount of energy in maybe five to ten minutes at the most.

"Whoa," said my dad as he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, taking a few seconds to get his bearings. Walking around the clearing a bit, my dad flexed the muscles in his arms and legs, getting a feel for the differences in the composition of his body, for all that he looked exactly the same as he did a few minutes ago. "I assume it went well?" he asked.

"Yep." I answered, popping the 'p'. "It went great, actually. I found out that part of my damage resistance is physical, so I upgraded you using my tissues as a template. Your skin is tougher than the hull of a battleship now, and your organs are more solid and durable than cannonballs. I went ahead and upgraded your bones and connective tissues as well, since mine are so much better than what you had before. You're probably a good bit stronger than you were before, and a huge amount tougher. If you want PRT numbers, then you're probably around "Brute 6"." I informed him.

"Honey, that is absolutely amazing! I'm doing the best I can with this, and feeling so great physically really helps, but I am so overwhelmed, and completely in awe of everything you can _do_ now…" he sighed, looking at me. "The fact that you can permanently turn normal people like me into the equivalent of capes is _amazing_ , Taylor. I know enough about parahumans to realize that out of everything you have done so far, this is the part that is probably the most impressive and important."

My father looked at me closely. "Now that you know how to do it, how many normal people could you turn into Brutes in a day? A dozen?" Shocked by his words, I shook my head no. "A hundred?" He asked, his voice hoarse.

"Around a hundred," I told him. I absolutely had not considered the implications of what I could do. One hundred new capes a day, even if they were "only" Brutes… Any organization or government would kill for that kind of power.

Dad looked at me sadly, his hands shaking a little. "Honey, imagine a thousand people as strong as me fighting Leviathan or Behemoth. Or ten thousand. Or a hundred thousand." Tears streamed down his face and he held me close. "Sweetheart, I am so proud of you and worried for you. Part of me wants to help you build an army to finally kill the beasts that are slowly destroying our world, and another part of me wants to take you far from here and hide you away... because if anyone at all finds out that you can manufacturer artificial parahumans, then you will either be conscripted or chased down for the rest of your life."

I summoned up willpower and the sheer stubborn pride that had allowed me to survive each and every day since my mother died; every single shitty school day since my best friend turned into a raving uber-bitch. I banished my fear, and turned my eyes to meet my father's gaze. He started at the intensity I level at him, and shot me a questioning look.

"Dad, I can become invisible and intangible at will. If I need to go out in public, then I can look like whoever or _whatever_ I want. If I am captured, then I can create a portal to _anywhere_ , without limit… even to outer space or to other planets. And I have a dozen other powers besides those."

I smiled fiercely. "You're the only person left in the world that I love, Dad, and now that you're insanely strong, and nearly as durable as I am... no one will be able to hold your vulnerability over my head. We both have powers now, Dad. If someone comes after either one of us then it will always be a real fight now, not a hostage situation. And while there may be someone out there who can kill me, there is _no one_ _in the world_ who is capable of taking away my freedom. And if they try to capture you, then God help them… because _I_ won't."

I paced back and forth, my mind whirling. "If all I could do was heal and turn people into mid-level brutes, then I really would be concerned, but those are just a few of abilities. I definitely don't plan to start turning everyone and their sister into capes. And while a hundred thousand Brute 6's would be useful, _that's not what we need_ … to beat the Endbringers we need half a dozen capes with extremely strong powers, or powers that synergize well with one another. Even one person with just the right ability could be enough turn the tide on those fucking monsters."

If Dad had been looking at me oddly while I was speaking, the way he was staring at me now was downright disconcerting. His gaze reminded me of the looks I had seen given to priests, visionaries, and other exceptional people capable of inspiring hope. I felt simultaneously proud that I could inspire feelings like that in my father, and a little worried that all I had needed to do in order to get that reaction from him was to speak passionately and from the heart about a matter about which I felt strongly. Still, I had not lied, and I was only attempting to share my viewpoint, and to reassure him about my capabilities so he wouldn't worry. Thanks to my powers, I was now the greatest escape artist the world had ever seen.

"Holy shit, Taylor…" said my dad, staring at me. "Have you ever thought about selling used cars?"" He asked me seriously. We both smiled at his lame joke, trying to get rid of the oppressive mood that had beset us a moment earlier.

It was time for something lighter. I thought of the reason my father had let me haul him out here in the first place, and I knew what to do. "How about I open up your Chi points and then demonstrate the opening katas for Anything Goes martial arts while you get a feel for your inner energy?" I asked him.

"What do I need to do?" He asked, looking at me excitedly.

"Take off your jacket and shirt, and then stand still." I told him.

I began reviewing my knowledge of the incredibly overpowered fighting style that the God had seen fit to let me have access to. I mentally went over the process I would need to perform to allow my father to harness the inner energies that were required for most of the techniques of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū. I held my forefingers out, and practiced hitting the air in the very specific pattern needed to unlock a human's ability to use 'Chi'. The store of information I had access to thanks to the Anything Goes style didn't actually tell me where the energy came from, or what it actually _was_ , but since martial artist who can utilize Chi tended to eat at least five time the amount of food normal people did, I could only guess that it was produced internally, rather than coming from some outside source.

According to martial arts lore, each and every person on earth had the ability to use Chi, to greater or lesser effect. Unless a master unlocked their Chi points, however, this power would stay locked inside of rigid channels in their body forever, completely inaccessible. Evidently part of making me "better than any human alive" at Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū involved unlocking my own Chi points, or else all I would have access to would have been some fairly showy hand-to-hand techniques which I wouldn't ever have been able to use to their fullest.

I went over the process for unlocking Chi points until it was burned into my brain, and then turned to face my father, or had been looking at me curiously. The knowledge I help told me that the quicker I synchronize his Chi points while I was unlocking them, the better this would work. After telling Dad to brace himself, I used super speed to allow me to move more quickly, and took aim. My hands blurred as I poked his torso in very specific places with my forefingers, using tiny bits of my own spiritual power to unseal each of the Chi points that I tapped. It was over in seconds, and my father fell backward when I tapped the last pressure point. A confused expression on his face, he landed with his butt in the mud.

"Holy shit," he whispered from his spot on the ground. I could tell that he was able to feel the new energy moving inside of his body. There was a huge grin on my father's face.

Using my eye power, I could actually see the inner energy starting to well up from each of the Chi points that I had unlocked. The power was beginning to permeate his tissues and circulate throughout the rest of his body the way my own Chi had been doing since I had first become a Demigod. I hadn't been searching for it previously in myself, so until I actually knew what to look for I hadn't even noticed it. Chi was quite different from the energy that I used for healing, though they both shared a few characteristics. Chi was much more mutable, and somehow 'thinner' than the power which was used to fuel 'healing hands'. It was harder to grasp, too, and I knew from the implanted memories in my head that a martial artist would need to teach their body how to manipulate Chi for each and every application they wanted to use it for manually, through intense and repetitive training. Chi manipulation wasn't like Divine or parahuman powers at all; there were no inbuilt reflexes or knowledge on what to do with it, no instructions or feelings that told you how to perform any of the superhuman feats you could use it to accomplish. It was pure distilled potential… and the only way to convert that potential into something usable was to do an ungodly amount of hard work. Unless, that is, you were a bullshit cheater like me.

I gazed at my father, who was still sitting on the ground. He had his hand held in front of him palm up, and he was staring at it intently. There was a wispy looking heat-haze there when I looked at it with my normal sight. Peering at it with my ocular power, I could see a swirling orb of loosely held Chi, which my father was concentrating on intently. I raised an eyebrow in surprise; that level of energy shaping, while not too advanced, definitely wasn't something that a rank newbie should be able to do… It took quite a bit of energy, and a lot of concentration to form one's inner energies into shapes. I peered into his Chi system, and was surprised to note that there was an abundance of energy held there, not the trivial amounts that someone should possess when their Chi points had just been unlocked minutes before.

I sighed, realizing that I was relying solely on my martial arts memories for that, and not considering other factors. For one, the amount of Chi someone possessed was determined by their physical strength and endurance, which my father had in spades after I'd upgraded his body. Another factor in the amount of Chi was someone's 'spiritual' development; as an adult with a lot of life experience, of course he would have more spiritual than the average newbie in the art, who would usually be a young child. The final factor, and the most important one, was training. The more one had used any of the Chi-based martial arts, the more energy they would have available, and the more efficiently they would be able to use it. If he had this much energy now, as a fresh novice, then my father's potential was extremely high… maybe as high as anyone who had ever practiced Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū. Only time would tell, I suppose.

"Nice work with the Chi shaping, Dad." I told him. Startled, he looked up from his exercises, a bewildered look on his face.

"Oh, that? I was just playing around. It's so strange, you know? How do you deal with having all of that energy coursing inside of you all the time? How am I going to be able to work, and do normal things, knowing that it's lying there, just under the surface?" He asked, half to me and half to himself.

"It's a novelty right now… it will get much easier once you've received a little bit of training. That's what we're going to do now, actually. I'm going to walk you through doing some of the beginning forms of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū, and I want you to follow along. While you do the movements, I would like you to work on focusing your Chi into your muscles; that will help you move faster, and when we start contact training, it will make your strikes stronger." I told him.

Dad nodded eagerly, and I lifted himself to his feet. I cleaned him off again, and then we began training. I walked him through kata after kata, marveling when he memorized each one almost instantly, rarely needing me to show him anything twice. I guessed that the increased activity and complexity I had seen in his brain after his 'tune-up' this morning had something to do with that; also, my father had always been a quick learner. We practiced for around three hours, deciding to quit at noon, when we both started to get hungry for lunch.

 **.** **.** **.**

'Yeah,' I thought from in from of my enormous cheeseburger, 'Chi users are bullshit.' After using up large portions of Chi in the previous few hours, the both of us had been starving. I had flown us to the only place I could think of where the two of us could get a meal that could truly fill the gaping hole that I felt in our respective tummies… the burger capital of Brockton Bay, and the greasiest spoon this side of Lord's Hill… The one and only Fugly Bob's.

When we became visible and tangible a block and a half away from the restaurant, the smell of charred beef filled my nostrils, sending my saliva production into overdrive. Wiping the drool off of my chin, I looked over to my dad, who was sniffing the air with glassy look in his eyes. Our eyes met, and we both nodded to each other in silent agreement, before heading toward the source of the heavenly aroma at nearly a jog. I burst through the door, instantly taking in the concentrated cooking aroma, and the huge plastic baskets loaded down with enormous burgers and heaping mounds of thick cut steak fries that were being served to customers.

I saw the length of the line in front of me and nearly whimpered when I saw six people waiting to order their meals. My father walked him behind me, and we took our places in line. I scanned the menu, looking all of the various choices over, as I knew the meal I regularly ordered wouldn't be enough today. I usually just ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries, but right now I felt like I could eat four of them at least. I mentally tallied the amount of money that four burgers would cost, and winced.

I suddenly remembered the huge stash of money that I had in my room. My wallet still contained the remainder of the stack of bills I had placed in there when I went costume shopping yesterday, meaning that I had over fifteen hundred dollars on me. I grinned; suddenly, the amount of money it took to buy lunch didn't matter very much. I looked at the picture of the largest burger on the menu, and my stomach growled so loudly that the girl ahead of me in line shot me a worried look. I gave her a little smile to indicate that I was fine, and she turned back around. My dad was looking over the pictures and description on the menu as well, a hungry look in his eyes. He had used over three times as much Chi as I had, so he probably felt like he was dying of starvation.

"No wonder Genma was so obsessed with food…" whispered Dad under his breath. I ignored his non sequitur, and turned to speak to him when we were nearing the head of the line.

"Hey Dad," I said, getting his attention, "Don't worry about paying for lunch, it's on me today." I told him.

"I can pay for lunch, honey." He replied, his voice a little defensive.

"Dad, it's OK. I've got this one… and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer." I warned, a dangerous note in my voice. He didn't say anything back to me, but I doubt he'd given up… he was stubborn enough that he seldom failed to get his way when it came to things like this. Not that I was worried he'd actually succeed in paying for lunch; I was stubborn as well.

We stepped up to the counter as the people ahead of us finished. The twenty-something cashier looked at us, her voice chipper. "Welcome to Fugly Bob's, home of the Challenger! What can I get started for you today?"

"We would like two Challengers with the works, but we won't be sitting in the big chair or actually doing the challenge. We don't want an announcement or anything like that, just a lot of food." I shot her a sweet smile. "I'll just pay the full price upfront." I rattled off my order quickly, before my dad could say anything. I'd peeked at his wallet before ordering, so I knew that he only had thirty-two dollars in there; less than half of what was needed to pay for the food I had ordered. I would normally have been worried about him using his debit or credit cards, but Fugly's only took cash. This way, he would be forced to let me pay for the meal.

He gave me a sharp look that let me know that we'd be having words later as I paid the bemused cashier for our meal. The quick glance he gave my stuffed-full wallet was filled with suspicion, and I feared that I would be due for an interrogation as soon as we were in a reasonably private spot. Deciding to get everything out in the open as soon as possible, I lead us to a booth on the far side of the restaurant, one that had no one else was sitting nearby. I set the little plastic sign with the number "73" on it at the edge of the table, and then Dad and I spent a moment at the soda fountain, filling the small bucket-sized cups that we had received with delicious carbonated goodness.

When we settled back down, Daniel Hebert gave me a hard look. "Taylor, where did you get all of that money?" He asked, his tone of voice stern.

I grinned wickedly. "Dad," I whispered, checking to make sure that no one could hear us, "I have x-ray vision, and I can see for miles. It took less than ten minutes to find an old stash of money that no one would miss. I found a bag that had been buried underground for at least a decade, which had _a lot_ of money in it. It was nearly rotted through; a few more years, and the money would have probably been decomposing. They're all old-style 20's, but they still spend the same." I informed him.

Dad looked a bit calmer now, but still a little worried. "Are you sure that no one's going to come looking for it?" He asked, concerned.

"I'm positive." I replied firmly. "Dad, I told you that the bag had been there for years… the person who buried it there is probably dead or in prison. The bills were all non-sequential, and there were no identifying marks on any of them. It's impossible that anyone will ever know it was me who found it." I paused a moment. "I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you… but honestly, with everything that's happened, it's really the least important thing on the list, by far." I explained.

Daniel Hebert sighed. "It's alright honey. Just tell me about this stuff as it happens from now on, so that I'm not caught flat-footed, OK?" He asked.

"I will." I told him, meaning it. Well, mostly… I'm sure there were things that he wouldn't want to know, and some stuff that I wouldn't be comfortable sharing. Still, staying honest was probably the best policy in most situations now that my father and I would be working together.

"Oh, by the way…" he said, as if just remembering something. "I'm going to pay you back for this lunch, even if it did cost seventy bucks." His tone was dangerous, as if he was begging me to argue. Dad didn't raise a sucker, so I didn't bite, pretending that he hadn't said anything at all. When I didn't respond, a smirk popped up, and he thought that he had won.

'The jokes on him,' I thought, 'Let's see what he thinks when I pay off the mortgage!' I grinned internally, wondering what his reaction to that would be. It would sure be fun to find out!

A waitress kindly brought our fries and the rest of the 'fixins shortly, informing us that it would be a few minutes before our burgers were finished. The baskets the fries came in were gigantic, each of them containing over a pound of thick steak fries. On the side were cups of Bob's famous dipping sauce, which was a tangy mustard-based sauce with relish mixed in. Normally I was ambivalent about the dip, but today it tasted wonderful. Dad and I polished off our fries long before the burgers came, even eating the parsley garnish on the side.

Apparently the 'Challenger', a burger that was normally free if you could finish it, came with a milkshake as well. They hadn't asked us what kind we wanted, surprisingly, but I found that mine was vanilla, and Dad's chocolate. After we tasted them we switched, each preferring the other flavor. We drank the 32oz desert beverages like they were water, our bellies hardly swelling at all, oddly enough. Afterward we were both still hungry, Dad enough so that his stomach was still growling regularly. I spotted the waitress who had brought us out the fries coming toward us, with another member of the kitchen staff following. Both of them were carrying large platters which each contained a hamburger of elephantine proportions.

The Challenger looked more like a full sized layer cake than a burger. The bun on top was bigger around than my head, and dotted with thousands of delicious sesame seeds. There was lettuce, nearly a head in each sandwich, as well several sliced tomatoes, and at least three cucumbers worth of dill pickle chips. The beef patties were over two inches thick, and each of them were so wide that they hung off the sides of the bottom bun. There were at least ten slices of American cheese melted on the beef patties, and mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard. My mouth began watering as soon as I caught sight of the burgers. My only regret as they sat the food in front of my father and I, was that I wouldn't get to eat both of them.

I tore into my food like a girl possessed, not even stopping to breathe… I suspect that regeneration took care of that. I had to fight my instinct to switch on super speed in order to eat faster, but with effort I managed to restrain myself. Totally focused on the enormous ball of yum in front of me, it took me by surprise when four parahumans came into my 100 meter "sixth sense" range. I continued to scarf down large bits of the 100% beef patty smothered in cheese and sauce as I turned x-ray vision on them, watching the quartet of capes approach.

I idly noted that my father had made more progress than me on his own humongous burger, having already consumed nearly three quarters of it in the last few minutes. Sadly, he had beaten me; I'd only managed to eat half of mine so far. My stomach was full enough now that the nearly palpable haze of overwhelming hunger which had permeated my being was starting to lift, and I became aware of the fact that half the people in the crowded dining room were watching my father and I make complete and utter pigs out of themselves.

As I licked a glob of mayonnaise from my food-stained lips, I watched one of the onlookers, a teenage boy a few years older than me, become beet red and quickly look away. 'Whoa,' I thought, using my marvelous eyes to examine in fine detail the reaction I had caused him to have. I blinked my eyes, a bit bemused; that hadn't been _that_ sexy, had it? I was suddenly very glad that my father was so occupied with his meal; he wouldn't have liked seeing boys ogling my like that _at all_.

I turned my attention to the parahumans I had sensed a few seconds ago, who were now walked through the door. They were all teenagers like me, though they were all a year or two older at the least. There were two boys and two girls in the group. The first two through the door were a blonde girl with freckles and a tall black boy with dreadlocks, thought he was more of a man than a boy. I like what I saw, so I gave them both a quick scan from head to toe, memorizing the details so that I could examine them later… in private. The next two to walk inside were not quite as nice looking, unfortunately... There was a thin pretty boy with a cold expression on his face, and a plain looking girl, who had the appearance and mannerisms of a butch lesbian. Neither of them "did it" for me, so I didn't bother to take a peek.

I did, however, scan each of their power relays in super speed, memorizing as many of the details of the crystalline structures as I could. All of them relays were quite versatile compared to Velocity's, who I suspect had gotten a fairly shitty relay based on all of the nifty things that the other relays I had examined since his seemed to be capable of. I was particularly interested in the relay which connected to the blonde girl; it seemed to be capable of large-scale data gathering and manipulation. If my Tinker knowledge could be trusted, it contained the ability to parse thousands of yottabytes of information per second. Out of all the power relays I had seen before, hers was the most like the computers and machines that regular human technology could produce, though orders of magnitude more advanced. I memorized as much of it as I could, but there was so much data that it was difficult to get enough to be worthwhile.

That's how I discovered a new trick with telekinesis. Wanted a way to encode information that no one but I could retrieve, I decided to experiment whether I could write with my TK. I tried recording some of my findings on the inside of my skin, smiling when it worked flawlessly. Remembering how I stripped the water and dirt particles from my father's clothes earlier, I decided to go deeper. I tried recording information on my very cells, and that worked too. I couldn't really go smaller than that, not without damaging my cells, so I isolated a couple of million cells that weren't critical for my health and wellbeing, and then telekinetically recorded a representation of the entire structure of the freckled blondie's power relay upon them. 'So this is what it feels like to have the blueprints for an alien supercomputer written on my tits,' I thought amusedly.

The four capes were standing in the line to order their food, which was still unfortunately long due to the lunch rush. The blonde was glancing around the dining room while wearing a smug little grin, which makes her face look a little vulpine. She turned her head to look at me, and her expression changed, the smile being wiped from her face. Her eyes went wide as she continued to stare at me, and I started to worry that her information gathering relay was telling her something worrisome about me or my powers. That's when everything went to shit.

"Br- _uhh_! Br- _uuh-uuh_ -ian!" She cried, clawing at the tall black boy, trying to clutch at his arm, and failing. He turned toward her, a dispassionate look on his face, and tried to catch her as she fell to the ground. She had already fallen too far, however, and she slipped away from his grasp, landing on the tile floor in a shuddering heap. The fair haired parahuman started seizing violently as she lay on the dirty ground, blood beginning to seep from her eyes and nostrils.

I stared at the fallen teenager in horror, my eye power taking in the damage that had occurred inside of her brain. I ran through possibilities for what was happening in super speed; it had _probably_ been caused by using whatever Thinker power she possessed to try and get information about me. Her relay must have _strongly_ objected to something having to do with my powers, or else she had overused her parahuman ability to a ludicrous degree… My gifted knowledge informed me that Thinker powers were notorious for giving their wielders headaches, and had occasionally even caused strokes or brain hemorrhages when they were used beyond the limits of what the brain could tolerate.

Peeking again at the mess inside of the fallen girl's head, I realized that she had maybe five or ten minutes at most until she the hemorrhage that had occurred in her parietal lobe killed her. Super speed was already turned on, and I willed it to work as fast as it could, pushing the limits of that particular power as much as I could, to give myself enough time to think of a solution for this mess that wouldn't immediately 'out' me as a cape. I discarded a dozen ideas in less than a second, before coming up with one that I felt could work.

It was time to get creative with illusion. But first, I needed to let me dad know what was going on, so that he wouldn't blow the whole thing wide open and ruin my plan. Dropping most of the way out of the auto-time dilation I was experiencing, I used illusions to cover my words, so that no one but my father would be able to hear me.

"Dad!" I said, getting his attention. He had just started to turn toward the fallen girl, and his eyes snapped over to me instantly. "I have a plan. I'm going to make an illusion of myself that will stay here while I use invisibility to slip out. I'm going to disguise myself as another cape, and then come back in so that I can heal her. Stay here, and don't draw any attention. Make sure that no one gets close enough to discover that you're sitting next to an illusion. I have to go _now_!" I spoke quickly and clearly, knowing that my dad would understand thanks to his native intelligence and neurological upgrades.

I made a false copy of myself over top of my real body using my Illusionist power, and then willed my real body invisible and intangible using Shadow Form. I flew up through the roof, heading a few blocks over at hypersonic speeds. I then spent the longest ten seconds of my life designing the "Phase Two" cape disguise that I had been planning since yesterday afternoon. I was prepared enough to have already come up with a theme and basic appearance for my newest persona, allowing me to rush through the design and creation of the semi-permanent illusion that would allow me to pretend that there was yet another new parahuman in Brockton Bay.

Rather than making my new persona extremely attractive, as I had made my Helen of Troy 'grab bag' avatar, this new disguise nearly personified the "inhuman" part of "inhumanly perfect". The face I designed had skin that looked like porcelain, and features that were so uniformly symmetrical that my new appearance nearly tipped over the edge into the uncanny valley. This was by design; I wanted people to see a hero whose appearance was so immaculate that that depending on whether you were a villain or a law abiding citizen, you would either be terrified of me or place me on a pedestal. This persona wasn't made to garner feelings of attraction or be personable in any way, shape, or form; it was no more or less than an icon of cold perfection that would stand as an example to be loved from afar... or feared up close, for the miscreants mindlessly working to unmake this world in their abject selfishness.

I chose to give this illusion long red hair... bright red, nearly the color of fire. It was pulled back from my face and braided, with the elaborate feet-long braid hanging over my shoulder and falling down the front of my body. My head and face were completely unadorned by disguise or decoration, rendering my icy perfection my only mask. My body was covered by form-fitting, feminine plate armor done in gold, with silver accents, a crucifix decorating the front of my breastplate. At my waist hung an enormous two-handed sword in scabbard, the handle projecting a good two feet from the sheathe. My armor covered everything from mid-neck down to my toes, giving me an inviolable appearance, as if nothing could harm me.

The last part of my disguise was the most impressive. From enormous angled openings in the back of my armor, projected enormous white wings, their tips decorated with red the color of my hair. My wingspan was enormous, over twenty feet, making me look much larger than I actually was. I spread the illusory wings, and flew through the air, visible only to myself. I view myself, as if I was looking at my own illusory body from the outside, using one of the many capabilities of my eyes; I looked _amazing_. I smiled, as rose in the air in super speed, until I was above the wispy clouds, far above the restaurant I had just come from. It was time to make my entrance.

Now that I was completely alone, I became visible high in the air amidst the clouds. It had been less than one minute since I left the Fugly Bob's, but I needed to hurry if I didn't want the girl in there to suffer any brain damage. I had a strong _feeling_ that I could cure even that, but I didn't want to risk it if I didn't have to. Pulling back my illusory wings, I dove, using Telekinesis to perform a controlled fall. I streaked downward, drawing attention from several people in the area, who watched in awe as a _real, live fucking angel_ landed outside of the local burger joint. People outside of the restaurant moved out of my way as I went to enter, their eyes and mouths opened wide in shock.

I folded my wings tightly against my back and sides I as stepped inside, people looking up at my towering eight and half feet of height in shock. I had spared a smidgen of worry that I might look too much like the Simurgh, but in actuality we looked nothing alike. She was a monochrome statue, and I simply... wasn't. I looked nearly human, and I was clearly not here to hurt anyone. People were treating me like they would any other angelic Case 53; with wary respect and feelings of shocked awe. I sauntered in like I owned the place, ignoring the surprised looks and gasps, until I was standing next to the downed girl.

The tall black boy was leaning over his friend as I entered, feeling for her pulse, while the feminine looking boy who had arrived with them spoke dispassionately with a 911 dispatcher on his cell phone, describing his companion's symptoms. The last member of the group had backed away from the others, the butch girl looking at the blonde with an odd expression on her face, as if she didn't know whether to be worried or contemptuous. I ignored them all, striding forward until I stood in from the broken Thinker, the shadow I cast causing the young man kneeling next to her to look up. His eyes opened until I thought that the skin around his sockets would snap from stretching so far, his lips pressed together tightly.

"Relax, child." I told him. The sound when I spoke was a concert of three extremely beautiful female voices in different timbers intertwined with each one another. He gulped when I spoke, and I saw a few people seated in the restaurant make the sign of the cross. "I am a healer. I will attend to this girl, if you will please stand aside." I told him, a reassuring smile on my lips.

The boy stood up, his leg trembling at the enormity of my presence. Minor illusions of various types played across my form, adding to my supernatural presence. The sides of my face were always alight, as if I stood with the noonday sun at my back. My skin _did_ actually glow with an inner luminescence, though it was so weak as to be only barely visible. The color of my hair rippled, a golden streak in in slowly moving throughout the braid, causing it to shine and ripple as it changed.

He stared up at me, his face becoming hard as he marshalled all of his strength. "You had better not hurt her," he told me. He didn't need to add the last part; the 'or else' was already there, in his eyes.

I nodded. "I shall not harm the little one," I told him. "I only seek to soothe her injuries this day." As soon as he stepped out of the way I knelt down, putting my head at the level of some of the taller people in present here. Several people had taken their cell phones out, cameras pointed in my direction. The illusory Taylor sitting next to my dad was no exception; she had her equally incorporeal phone out, so that I could pretend to have her record me. I laid my hand onto the bleeding girl's trembling body, using a minute trickle of energy to assess the damage.

Here brain was a mess; in addition to the first hemorrhage, there were three more now. One of them was interfering with her autonomic functions, causing her breathing to slow down to nearly nothing. Her heart was beating erratically, and if I did nothing, I could sense that it wouldn't be long before she was cast off her mortal coil. 'Not today.' I decided, feeling healing energies into her damaged body. The hand I had laid on her hair lit up with a gold light, streamers of energy pulsing as they disappeared into her body. The teenage girl's torn tissues and broken brain drank in the life-restoring power I gave her, setting all of her injuries right. In less than a second, she was healthier than she had ever been in her life.

Bright green eyes shot open, and the girl looked up at me. An expression of awe spread over her face, her eyes opening to wide and the smile on her face growing so much that it almost looked painful. The teenager's expression suddenly twisted into a grimace, and she began to spasm again. I was still trickling healing energy into her, so I felt it when another artery in the girl's brain erupted; parts of the circulatory system around the exploded capillary simply disintegrating under the enormous load it was attempting to bear. I frowned; the part of her brain connected to her power relay had gone crazy as she looked at me, damaging her again in seconds. It seemed I would need to do more than simply repair the girl's damage. I looked up at the dark skinned boy, whose gaze was flitting back and forth between me and the girl I was attempting to heal, a look of worry on his face.

"Something is very wrong with her brain," I muttered to him, low enough that only he would be able to hear. "Her power keeps activating violently, causing arteries to burst inside. Fear not, for I can still heal her… however I will, by necessity, need to redouble my efforts. Do not be alarmed if it becomes somewhat… _bright_ in here."

He nodded, and I got back to work. If her circulatory system and brain were not hardy enough to survive whatever was happening to her, then I would need to upgrade her until they were. I sent carefully metered amount of healing power into her entire head, tiny rivulets of power spreading through the veins, arteries, and nervous tissues of her body until her entire circulatory and nervous systems were inundated with healing power. Using my own heavily upgraded tissues as a template, I did to this poor soul what I had previously done to my father when I improved his bones and organs earlier today. Picturing the end result in my mind, I transmuted her weak organs and tissues into veritable copies of my own, making sure that her brain was changed slowly, one cell at a time, and that the data stored on it was kept completely the same. In this way, her continuity of consciousness would be maintained as the changes took place.

I kept the freckle faced girl's eyes closed throughout the procedure, fearing what would happen if she saw me while her body was in flux, and she damaged her brain again while it was upgraded. Golden light leaked out from my palm, bathing the entire dining room in rays of less diffuse healing energy. I found, to my surprise, that I could _feel_ each and every person in the room as the escaped energy hit them. I could read their biology as surely as I could the girl under my ministrations, and I could tell that all of the minor wounds, aches, and pains that each of these people carried were being healed as the golden light washed over them. The mood inside of Fugly Bob's dining room became solemn, and I could see one or two of the people who had simply been eating their meals began to shed the odd tear. One elderly man began openly weeping, his wife holding him close as he begged God to forgive him for his sins over and over into her breast.

Fugly Bob himself had stepped out from his place in the kitchen, holding his sweaty, greasy cook's hat against his chest tightly, as if it was a lifeline. A fat tear made its way down his cheek, as the years old chemical burns which had previously given him and the restaurant their names were slowly erased upon being exposed to the excess healing power that strobed through the interior of the room. Finally, after two long minutes of work, my task was complete. I had learned a lot from my previous experience "doing upgrades", and so I was able to fix the girl's brain issue with far less power than had been needed to increase my father's physical power. I had used perhaps twenty units of healing power to heal the young woman, and I could already feel my reserves beginning to refill as I stood up from where I had knelt beside her.

I hoisted the now-healthy blonde to her feet, watching as she blinked her green eyes rapidly as she took in the room around her. Her eyes finally landed on me, and I watched as her face once more began sporting the enraptured look that I had seen just before her second injury. I tensed, waiting to see if there would be any issues this time, but thankfully my upgrades did their job.

Her neural tissues and circulatory system were at least two orders of magnitude stronger than they had been, with an increase to their performance that was at least equal to that. I had rebuilt _all_ of her brain, including the coronas pollentia and gemma, and I had taken special care to shore up and increase the connections between these organs and the rest of her brain and spine.

From what I had seen, it appeared as though the aneurysms she had suffered were ultimately caused by a lack of bandwidth between the girl's power relay and her brain. When the relay fed her more information than she could handle, then her brain started taking damage proportional to the overload she experienced. I suspected that nearly all Thinker class capes would have this issue, to a greater or lesser extent depending on how good the connection to their relays was, and how much data their powers tended to send them at a time.

Those problem were in the past for blondie; I had increased the data bus between her and the source of her parahuman power to such a ludicrous degree that she would die from fever due to overheating her brain before her data channels could be saturated to such a point that it would harm her neural tissues. Not that that would happen… she would need to use her power at full bore for days, without sleeping or stopping for even a moment, to even approach that level of thermal buildup. She would also have to ignore the resultant fever, and somehow _not_ pass out from heat stroke.

I figured that there was a very slim possibility that she would intentionally harm herself to such a degree; even so, she was _much_ better off than she had been before I'd healed her. She had only been one long glance away from killing herself due to power overuse, as had nearly happened when she tried to use her Thinker power to make sense of me. I was still curious about what her power _actually was_ , but I figured that here and now wasn't the time for that. I gave her a beatific smile with my perfect, porcelain features, and attempted to extract my hand from her very firm grip. I realized that I had accidentally upgraded her muscles to a small degree; that was only to be expected, I guess, as healing energy had suffused most of her body as it traveled down her nerves and blood vessels.

The beneficiary of my healing powers looked up at me with a genuine smile on her face, staring at me in amazement, as if I was a literal God instead of merely the angel I appeared to be. "Thank you." She choked out, nearly beginning to weep as several in the room were already doing. She still would not let go of my hand. I didn't force the issue, at least for now, preferring not to use telekinesis on a girl I'd just brought back from the brink of death less than a minute before.

"You are most welcome, my child." I told her, my three-in-one voice intertwining in harmony as I spoke. "Fear not, for the physical problem which brought you low shall never trouble you again. The weakness in your mortal flesh has been healed by I, The Archangel Ariel, and you shall suffer it no longer."

I rose into the air an inch or two, my wings spreading out slightly. The blonde girl, for all that she had a Thinker power and enhanced neural tissue now, did not let go. In fact, she clung to my outstretched hand all the more tenaciously. She leaned in close, turning in such a way that none of the cell phone cameras recording us could see her face.

"I'm being held captive," she whispered. " _Please_ help me. Take me with you." Her tone was pleading, nearly heart breaking in fact. I searched her body for deception, reading her subdermal muscles using my eye powers and healing ability. I didn't find any; she was telling the truth. I couldn't find it in myself to refuse her earnest request, so I decided to help her. I gave her a subtle nod, as I rose higher, and then lifted her off the ground with telekinesis, making it appear as though I lifted her with sheer Brute strength. The blonde teen let out a small gasp of surprise when I scooped her up into a bridal carry, holding her tightly against my chest. My right hand was holding her lower body, and I was instantly aware that my hand was touching her very shapely rear end. I could tell that she had realized this as well, because a bright blush painted her freckled cheeks.

The black boy was walking toward me now, his face showing worry and a little bit of apprehension when I lifted his 'friend' up. He didn't _seem_ like the one who was holding her captive, he was much too concerned for her wellbeing, but I didn't know for sure if he was involved yet. I wasn't about to let him have her in any case.

"I am taking her to Brockton Bay General Hospital so the doctors there may perform tests to verify that your companion's injuries will not return." I told him. "I will carry her there personally, as the girl is still weak from my healing. You can meet us there at your leisure." I told him in a commanding voice. I left no room for argument, and even if he was a parahuman, there was no way he was going to endanger his identity by using his powers in public like this.

The older teen frowned at me, but then nodded his head after a moment, a resigned expression on his face. "I'll hold you to that." He told me, making me wince internally. If he was an innocent party here then I regretted having to lie to him and basically kidnap his friend, but she had asked for my help… I wasn't about to let my first rescue as a hero be ruined by being honest to someone who might be a villain, or because I was afraid to hurt someone's feelings. It didn't help that he was really good looking, and that his genitals were very large and nicely formed. I once again used my bullshit eye powers to peep on the blond girl in my arms, in order to take my mind off of the dark skinned hottie that I'd just lied to. At least I would be in _one_ of their good books.

Going intangible, but not invisible, I rose up through the roof of the building amidst the gasps and cried of surprise of the people in the burger joint. The girl in my arms clung to me tightly, her heart rate increasing as we phased through layers of the ceiling and the roof. We emerged in the clear, sky, the wispy clouds I had hid behind before I went inside the only thing marring the nearly empty blue expanse. I rose in the air until we were so high that everyone on the ground looked like ants, only going invisible when I couldn't see any people or recording devices tracking me any longer. Blondie once again clung to me harder, with enough force that she would have ripped the skin of a normal person apart. She wasn't anywhere _near_ as strong as my dad was now, only around five times as strong as a girl her size would normally be. Still, it was probably enough to net her a "Brute 1" rating, especially when you took the extremely quick reaction times she would have now that her nerves and brain worked so much faster.

It didn't take long to reach the top floor of the empty building I'd found yesterday. I set the girl down gently on the floor, a little sad that I was no longer able to hold her soft, curvy form against my body. Oh, well… she would probably need me to carry her out of here as well. That thought perked me up a little bit. I shook all of the hazy, hormone driven adolescent thoughts from my head; it was time to get some information from the girl I'd saved. I looked her over, noting that she seemed much more relaxed now that we were well away from her 'friends'. I hadn't seen any weapons on them earlier, but that didn't mean much when it came to capes; any of them could have had the ability kill her at any moment for all I knew. I could tell a little about what a parahuman's power did based on what their power relay looked like, but unless they used their powers around me I didn't really know what they were capable of. I would need to work on that. I had found myself thinking that a lot, lately.

"So," said the girl with a smirk, swaying her hips as she took a step closer to me. "Do I actually get to see what my savior looks like?" I was startled enough that I took a step backward, and a little of my surprise leaked through into my illusory face.

"I thought so," she said softly, her smile becoming nearly vulpine. "So, that really is some kind of hologram, or something? No? An illusory power, maybe?" She studied me for a moment, as I stood there, taken aback at the information she was pulling from nowhere. And I had thought that _my_ Thinker powers were bullshit!

"How are you _doing_ that, Blondie?" I asked, my three-in-one voice colored by irritation and surprise.

She chuckled. "It's Lisa, actually." She shared. "And that's my power… though I suppose you've already realized that I'm a fairly powerful Thinker." She paused a moment, her hand coming raising to cup her chin as she gazed at me consideringly. "Well… I _was_ a fairly powerful Thinker, maybe a six or seven. Now that you've 'had your way' with me, I'm probably closer to Thinker nine or ten. Not to mention the minor Brute and Mover rating that your little 'healing' tacked on."

My eyes were wide under my fake face, and I had gone tense. For the first time I thought that I _may have_ been able to actually use Telekinesis to erase memories, if I had taken it. This girl had already ferreted out several of my most dangerous secrets, and it had only taken her a few minutes. Thinker nine or ten, _indeed_! I would need to convince her to keep what she had discovered to herself, somehow… I wasn't about to kill her, or anything like that, but if I was going to fix the nearly fucked world that I was born into, I couldn't have the secrets of my powers being spread around town like yesterday's gossip.

"Were those other capes actually holding you as a prisoner, or did you lie to me about that so that you could get more information about my powers?" I asked Lisa, a note of anger in my voice. I really hoped that she had been genuinely in need of rescuing, and not trying to play me. I _really_ didn't want to be forced to do something drastic to keep her silent, especially after I'd just gone through so much trouble to keep her healthy and safe. I guess I could portal her somewhere really remote, if I needed to. And if that wouldn't work, as horribly distasteful as the thought was, the Yangban was _always_ looking for more Thinkers to add to their group. It would break my heart to do something like that, but I thought that I might be capable of it if my own life, and the lives of my father and everyone I could help were at risk.

The smile dropped off of Lisa's face like she had been burned, and she held up both of her hands in a placating gesture. "Whoa, whoa, no need to do anything drastic!" She exclaimed, her voice wary. "I was just trying to figure out your deal; it's kind of what I do. I promise that I'll keep anything I learn to myself. Just don't go and do… whatever it was that you were thinking about doing to keep me quiet. I'll can be a good girl."

"I really hope so, for your sake." I told her, my voice firm. Thinkers were total bullshit. When I enhanced Lisa, I wasn't really thinking about her power, I was mostly concerned about her life. If I had known just how effective her power would be at learning about my powers, I might have made the effort to come up with another way of helping her.

"I know that parahumans can't help but use their powers, but I didn't save your life and then free you from whatever situation you were stuck in just so that you could turn around and expose all of my secrets." I told her seriously. "I'm one of the good guys, and I'm actively working to make this city, and hopefully the world, a better place… for _everyone_. If the people trying to wreck society know what I'm doing, or even what I'm really capable of, then my efforts will be _much_ less productive."

"I'm sorry… I wasn't intending to threaten you, but I get that it might have sounded like that." Lisa said contritely. "Ever since I triggered, it's been hard to stop myself from running my mouth, usually to try and get one over on someone." She frowned, her green eyes pointed at the ground. "Other capes can shoot lasers, or hit really hard; the only weapons I have are my words." She gave me a shy smile, which I returned.

I studied the girl for a few minutes, trying to see if she was being honest with me. I tried something new, in order to accomplish this. Certainly, I could _see_ every part of her body, using my amazing eyes, but using them as a lie detector wasn't perfect. When I used my healing power, however, I was connected to every part of someone's body at once, and gained a perfect understanding of its inner workings. I had learned earlier in the restaurant, that I could use "healing hands" at range, something that I hadn't even considered previously. It seemed to lose part of its effectiveness when I used it that way, quite a bit of the energy radiating off into the air, but I wasn't planning on healing anyone… I was planning to use it as a lie detector.

I used the smallest, most insignificant bit of healing energy that I could grasp, forming it into a microscopic beam that was so infinitesimal that it couldn't be seen with the naked eye. I aimed it at the exposed skin of Lisa's face, and then sent it out. I caught a tiny glow on my hand where the energy had originated, but other than that, nothing. It was not something that normal human eyes were capable of seeing, thankfully. When the beam of healing power connected, I smiled under the illusion I wore; I was connected to the girl's body again, and I could sense every one of her biological functions as if my palm was once more on her head. I couldn't actually _heal_ her, using this little energy, but I could certainly tell what was going on.

I concentrated hard, trying to figure out what she was feeling. It was readily apparent; mostly, she was scared. Both of me, I suspected, and of something else… possibly whoever she had begged me to save her from. It was probably this nervousness, and a sense of relief at escaping, that had led her to run her mouth so thoughtlessly a moment ago. Super speed helped me learn all of this and more in a mere second, keeping me from delaying the conversation with my information gathering.

I was _very_ glad to discover that Lisa was more than a fat mouthed sieve, for several reasons. For one, I got to put off learning whether I had it in me to do something terrible in order to protect my father and I, and to preserve my plans to help save the world. I was also glad because I liked her, in more ways than one, and I could definitely use the help of a powerful Thinker. I wasn't exactly chop suey when it came to the brains department, but I know my own limitations… in that area, and at least for now. I might keep getting smarter indefinitely, but I'm no 'Thinker nine' like Lisa appeared to be after the enhancements I'd given her brain and to the connection between her coronas and her power relay. I didn't know the specific of her ability, exactly, but it seemed akin to using deductive reasoning to a ludicrous level.

"I appreciate your honesty, and I'm not offended by what you said." I told her. "As long as you're willing to work with me, and to keep what you learn secret, I'd be glad to help you with any problems related to the captivity you mentioned, and any other problems that you're having, within reason." She became a little less tense as I spoke, some of the 'fight or flight' hormones in her bloodstream dispersing when she realized I wasn't going to kill her or portal her to China.

"Can you tell me more about the situation I rescued you from? I need to know if you're actively being targeted, and by who. I'm a little perplexed, as the people you were with didn't seem especially hostile, especially not the boy I talked to… he seemed concerned, if anything."

"Up until ten days ago, I was on my own, a complete unknown as far as capes go. I'd done nothing worse than some petty shoplifting, and that was only so I could keep myself fed while I was on the streets." She sighed. "I must have mouthed off to the wrong person, because someone figured out that I'm a Thinker, and before I knew it I'd been captured." She scowled, holding her fists to her sides and clenching them tightly.

"The bastard who caught me, Coil, sent an entire squad of goons after me when he realized what I was. Even before the tune-up you gave me, I was a powerful Thinker… probably one of the strongest in this part of the country. I tried everything I could to get away from his soldiers, used every trick in the book… but nothing worked. No matter where I ran, what I did, they were always one step ahead." She looked at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "When his mercenaries brought me before him, Coil gave me a choice; work for him 'willingly'," she used air quotes, "or eat a bullet. Seeing how I'm fond of living, I agreed to work for him. I figured that with time and luck, I would be able to figure out his power and get out from under his thumb."

Lisa laughed bitterly. "I still don't know what his power is. It's not something flashy or obvious. It's either a Thinker ability, possibly precognition, or some kind of power that can subtly manipulate reality. It tells him how to win in a given situation, somehow allowing him to make the correct decision in nearly any scenario. When I asked what his power was, he flipped a coin ten times in a row, giving me the correct answer every time. He told me that his power is 'destiny manipulation', which is complete and utter bullshit."

The girl's face was flushed due to anger and stress, her eyes puffy from unshed tears. "And then you came along," she said, sniffling and wiping away an escaped tear. "My own personal guardian angel, saving my life when my power went off the rails like a runaway train. You even literally swept me off of my fucking feet." The blonde teen laughed while she cried, tension draining from her body like air from a punctured tire. Given that she had been captured at gunpoint by armed soldiers, and then kept under nearly constant stress for almost two weeks, I could sympathize with what she was going through.

Lisa's legs looked a little wobbly, so I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. She pressed her face into my side, and I felt hot tears soaking into my blouse as Lisa cried out her frustrations and bad feelings. I got the impression that she wasn't usually so emotional, but this had happened so rapidly, in just the right way, to cause this kind of reaction from her. I patted her shoulder reassuringly as she dried her eyes on her coat sleeve. There was still one thing piece of this puzzle left; or rather three pieces.

"What was the deal with the three other parahumans who were with you at Fugly Bob's? They didn't seem to be guarding you, or keeping tabs on you to prevent escape." I asked, wondering what had been up with that. The boy with the cornrows had been worried about her, and had done everything he could in that situation to protect the blonde Thinker from harm, even going so far to subtly threaten me when I went to take her away. While a captor or minder might have done something similar, I wouldn't expect them to actually _care_ about their charge.

"They're a team of minor league supervillains that Coil just put together. They don't know anything about him, not even his name; just that they have a mysterious benefactor who pays them to join forces expects them to do specific jobs now and then. Coil forced me to join as his 'inside man' so that I could steer their group to his ends and keep an eye on them." She explained. "They're called "The Undersiders", and all of them come from bad situations, or have valid reasons for becoming supervillains… but none of them were recruited forcibly, like me. They didn't know that I wasn't there by choice, either… Coil told me that if I let them in on that he would either kill me, or whoever I told… whichever was more convenient for him."

I looked at her in surprise, my mind whirling at the implications. "So, the team is brand new, then? Have you even committed any crimes yet?" I inquired. "And why were the other three so willing to become villains… surely they could have joined the Wards, or became rogues if they needed money?"

Lisa laughed bitterly, her face twisted into a scowl. "Not all of us hit the jackpot in the superpower lottery like you." She said. "The Protectorate would take any of us, sure, but then we would be making minimum wage until we hit eighteen, the rest of our pay going into the vaunted Wards 'trust fund'. Brian, the boy you talked to, needs a valid source of income so that he can get custody of his little sister; she's in a bad situation. The PRT _might_ help with that, but then again they might not… and they would make him join up first, without him knowing if they were actually going to help beforehand." She frowned. "The PRT cares more about getting parahumans under their thumb then about their welfare, especially underage ones. They would probably string him along with promises, as that would allow them to control him more easily."

"As far as the other two go, Rachel and 'Alec'," more air quotes, "are damaged goods. Both of them triggered young and were forced to commit some fairly heinous crimes, either by supervillain parents in Alec's case, or just to survive in Rachel's. If the PRT even knew they were in town, they'd be more likely to send them to prison than to entertain the notion of recruiting them."

I looked at her in shock. "Surely they can't blame kids for committing crimes so that they could survive." I found myself saying out loud. As I said the words, however, my knowledge of parahuman law informed me that _yes_ , the law did often hold young parahumans accountable for their actions, as if they were full grown adults. The practice made me sick; some of the children they had consigned to juvie and the birdcage-the foremost parahumans prison-were no older than nine years old. Sure, they had committed some pretty heinous crime, but that _did not_ mean that they were as responsible for their actions as an adult was. Children couldn't vote or drive for a very good reason… their minds and bodies weren't developed enough to do so; neither was their sense of judgement. A child was, simply put, not capable of shouldering either the rights nor the responsibilities of an adult. Pretending like they were just because it was more convenient, was abhorrent to me.

And this Coil, a fully grown man who took advantage of troubled parahuman children… it made me sick. I sincerely hoped that Lisa didn't just plan on running and hiding, because I was most assuredly planning to punish Coil for his vile actions. If I could rescue the other teens who he'd roped into committing crimes for him then all the better. I had nearly a quarter million dollars; surely that should be enough to at least begin helping with the Undersiders' various problems, at least for now. And when I took down this self-styled mastermind, this 'master of destiny', then I would add his resources to my own, giving me even more options and choices when it came to helping these, and other, children. No one should have to have their lives ruined just because they were abused, or otherwise subject to the whims of fate at a young age.

"We're going to be taking Coil down, as soon as possible." I told Lisa, my voice brooking no argument.

She looked at me, her eyes wide. "Just like that?" She asked, her tone filled with surprise. She stared at me harder, her brow furrowed. "Whatever you did to me, it's not helping me read you any better than I could before… I can pick up things about your individual powers by observing their effects on other people and the world around you, but from _you_ I'm getting nothing… well, nothing that makes sense. At least my power's not tearing my brain apart trying to figure you out anymore..." She said dryly. She pursed her lips, snuggling up against me more closely. "Just what is your power, anyway? If we're going to be working together, then that would be a good thing to know."

I thought it over for a moment; if I _was_ going to be helping this girl, and maybe even her former teammates, then it would only make sense to reveal my true self to her… if not my true nature. She may not have been able to read me directly using her power, but if we kept meeting then sooner or later she would pick up enough clues from context to figure out where I lived, or something else that would lead her back to my identity. Based on her rather abrasive sense of curiosity, I doubt that she would settle for a non-answer, either.

I pondered for a moment, before coming to a conclusion. Lisa had been playing it straight with me by telling me everything she knew, whenever I asked her a question. Oh, I knew that she was using a false name, but I knew her real appearance, so it would be trivial to find out her true identity in just a few moments on the Internet. If I was going to be working with her then it really would behoove me to show her the same amount of trust that she had already given me.

Besides… she had started seizing in the restaurant when she'd seen me in my civilian identity, and then again when she saw my illusory Archangel Ariel disguise. I doubt that the minor memory loss from the brain damage she'd been afflicted with would keep her from linking the two incidents for long. I'd healed all of the damage, which meant that she could access those memories at any time. I suspect it was only her shock and the rapid change in circumstances that was keeping her from remembering mine and my father's appearances at the moment. A show of trust right now might go a long way toward getting her on my side and helping her to trust me long-term. Besides, I liked Lisa, in more ways than one... _and_ I could always use another friend.

I dropped the illusion I'd been wearing, causing the armored, Amazonian angel who had been holding Lisa tightly to shrink down to normal size. Now I was merely taller than average, not superhumanly huge. Lisa looked into my face, which was much closer to her own than it had seemed previously, blinking her eyes in shock as she took in my superhumanly perfect features. I gave her a huge grin as she continued to stare up at me like a deer caught in the headlights. She was maybe 5'6 in height, about a head shorter than me, so she had to crane her neck to keep her eyes on mine. Finally, after a period of time that felt like an eternity, but was only a minute or two in reality, she turned her head away while exhaling loudly.

"I thought that you'd be older," she finally said after another moment of silence. "You're about nineteen, right?" Asked the dark blonde haired girl, a slight blush present on her freckle dotted cheeks. The other girl in the room with me was acting a bit odd, now, trying to avoid looking me in the eyes... but not attempting to get out from under my arm, strangely enough. She still had her front facing me, her torso and legs pressing up against the side of my body. Her face was nearly touching my neck. Maybe she'd realized that she'd had her face buried the crook of my neck while she had been crying a few minutes earlier, and not against my side like she had thought? Was that embarrassment enough to explain her current actions?

"I'm fifteen, actually." I told her. I gave her a shy smile, a light rosy blush of my own spreading over my face. "My name is Taylor Hebert, and I just started my sophomore year in high school. It's very nice to meet you, Lisa." I loosened up the hold I had around her shoulders, and began to turn toward her so that I could offer my new friend my hand to shake. My fingers trailed over her back as I moved, feeling her soft skin underneath her top. I turned my head so that I was looking her directly into her eyes. That was when Lisa did something that surprised the hell out of me… I'm not sure if she thought I was leaning in to make a move, or if it was simply because she was as attracted to me as I was to her, but the lithe blonde practically jumped me. Her newly strengthened arms wrapped around my torso and she pressed her moist lips firmly against my own.

When I opened my mouth to gasp, it was suddenly filled with a wriggling tongue that began massaging my own, and then exploring the interior of my oral cavity. I noted that the gorgeous teenage girl in my arms tasted faintly of cherry lip gloss. I was surprised, extremely so, but this new development was _definitely_ not unwelcome. I wrapped my own arms around the sexy little blonde and grabbed her firm little bubble butt tightly, pulling her against me. She gyrated her hips back and forth wildly as the juncture between her shapely legs was ground against my knee under the force of my grip.

Lisa pulled away from our searing kiss and threw her head back to whimper in pleasure from the stimulation her sweet little box was receiving. I felt my right knee starting to get damp through my jeans as the other girl continued to push her womanhood against my leg, her little hole spilling liquid love all over me. I saw Lisa's smooth, graceful neck uncovered as her head hung backward, so I attacked with my mouth, alternately sucking, kissing, and giving it little nips with my teeth. This sent the green eyed teen into a frenzy, her body shuddering as she orgasmed from the sensation my mouth on her skin and the rough pleasure of dry-fucking her cloth covered pussy against my leg.

I help the cute little teenager close as she came down from her orgasm, shudders and little jolts of pleasure still coursing through her body. She fluttered her eyes as she blearily came back to herself, fighting off the warm, sleepy sensation that coming so strongly, and so unexpectedly, had caused. We slowly sank down to the carpeted floor together, and she leaned close and kissed me again when our rear ends hit the floor. We both began pulling and unfastening each other's clothing between sweet kisses, discarded garments being dropped or thrown away as soon as they were clear of our bodies.

"God, you are _so fucking_ _sexy_ ," husked Lisa as she finished tearing off my shirt, her eyes firmly locked onto my big, round breasts. I hadn't yet had a chance to purchase a bra since my transformation… not that I seemed to need one. My huge titties, which had to be at least an 'E cup' were not only extremely well shaped, they were very firm, with just enough sag to show that they were real and not silicone implants. Each of my tits was capped with a large pink nipple which protruded from the exact center of my relatively small areolas. In short, my breasts were _glorious_ , and Lisa had seemed to fall in love with them at first sight.

The beautiful blonde dove at my chest, a string of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth as she locked her lips onto my left nipple and began sucking noisily on it. Her thick, sensuous lips worked the most sensitive part of breast as she nursed. The feeling of her mouth on me, and the sheer sluttiness I felt at letting a veritable stranger suck on my tits made me moan out loud. The other teen occasionally flicked her tongue out, batting at the nub she was sucking, which made my toes curl in pleasure. She would also nip at my nipples and other parts of my boobs with her teeth, causing me hiss at the sharp, delicious sensation. A warm, tingly feeling began to build up in my chest from the yummy feelings that Lisa was giving me.

Her head moved back and forth every few minutes, as Lisa alternated sucking on first one, and then the other of my thick pink nipples. The titty that she wasn't currently giving a tongue bath was not left to fend for itself; the girl with the bright green eyes would lock eyes with me over the wide curves of my epic cleavage, and pinch and pull at whichever of the ultra-sensitive pink nubs she didn't currently have in her mouth, teasing me unmercifully. My tiny little cunny was juicing like crazy after less than five minutes of this erotic breast worship, causing my slippery girly cum to leak from my bare snatch, and drool all over my thighs, and Lisa's own tits, which were rubbing all over my naked lap as Lisa laid on top of me, straddling my long, smooth legs.

The tingling in my chest reached a crescendo as the sexy young girl on top of my began treating my poor titties really rough, violently slapping at them and gnawing on my drool-covered nipples, then biting down and pulling back using her strong neck muscles, or whipping her head from side to side with both pink nubs trapped between her teeth at the same time. Her eyes had a manic expression in them as she tortured my fat baby feeders, and I could feel a pool of her own girly goo flowing from her sopping snatch as she really got into it.

Of course, none of her rough treatment was actually _harming_ me… I was so bullshit durable that I could have had Alexandria from the Triumvirate do a fucking Mexican tap dance on my breasts, and all that would happen was that she would get tired out. The only thing that my new lover accomplished when she munched vigorously on my cans, was to send huge spikes of pleasure directly into my brain.

Finally, I couldn't take it any longer. A humongous explosion of scalding electricity lanced through my breasts, making me cry out in abject ecstasy. A high-picked keening sound rang out from my throat as the enormous pressure that had been gathering in my titties increased to the point that it was actually painful, before releasing suddenly in the form of a blinding wave of pleasure. The amazing feelings that shot through my fat boobies were so mind-numbingly wonderful that I nearly blacked out, only my superhuman constitution allowing me to hold onto consciousness. As I looked down through eyes half lidded in pleasure, and leaking tears from the intensity of the sensations wracking my body, I witnessed something wonderful happen.

My big, thick nipples had swollen even larger and turned bright red under Lisa's wonderful oral torture. Now, they were swelling even more, becoming longer, wider, and even more puffy as I convulsed from the massive titgasm I was experiencing. As I watched, my teeth clenched from overstimulation, the pores at the end of each nipple were forced open, the tiny seals keeping them sealed blocking open under the massive pressure inside my jiggling breasts. My eyes rolled up into my head and a gurgling sound escaped from my throat as torrents of thick, white fluid spewed out of my gigantic knockers in huge, satisfying spurts. I moaned deeply, even louder than before, as my fat, milk filled baby feeders came _hard_. Lisa still had both nipples stuck in her mouth, the rubbery nubs clutched between her teeth as they started spraying milk directly into her delicious oral fuck-hole.

Lisa locked her lips around my milk-spewing paps as soon as they started ejaculating, humming in pleasure through her closed mouth as she tried as hard as she could to simultaneously grind my nipples into mush with her teeth and suck my poor boobies completely dry. Her mouth and throat worked frantically as she pleasured me nearly into a coma, gulping down mouthful after mouthful of the thick, creamy titty-cum I was feeding her. She grabbed the sides of my boobs with her small, strong hands, digging her fingers as deep as possibly into the voluminous tit-flesh she found there. When her hands would sink no further into my huge rack, the teenaged Thinker began to work my titties over with as much strength as she could bring to bear, massaging the deepest part of my breasts, clenching her hands over and over again, stimulating my gurgling, cream filled udders to shoot their milky load even more forcefully.

That was the last straw for me; feeling the sweet girl furiously sucking and squeezing my big, fat titties so forcefully was so transcendently amazing that my soaking wet pussy, which hadn't even been touched, exploded into orgasm as well. My hot little hole clenched, squeezing and pulsing as the entire core of my being was filled with white light. I began to sob in unrestrained joy as my cunt and tits came in unison, hot jets of thick fluid erupting from both ends. Lisa continued to torture my breasts wonderfully as I shook and sobbed. My face turned bright red as I cried out, my arms and legs encircling the hot blonde who was making me feel so fucking good, holding her sexy little body tightly against my own. I buried my hands into her silky hair, tugging on her honey colored locks as she kept nursing, eating the thick, creamy discharge my heavy tits kept spewing out.

My mind was awash with such overwhelming pleasure that I fear I would have died, had I still been mortal. The dual orgasms thundering in my titties and cunt kept crashing through my body like Leviathan's tsunami waves, making me spasm and shake while I sobbed in unrestrained joy under Lisa's furious assault. My beautiful face was a mess by now, wet from countless tears, and bright red from cumming so hard for so long.

The hot teenager violently sucking and squeezing my tits suddenly switched targets, releasing my left breast from her crushing palpitations and roughly forcing three of her slim fingers up into my super tight, heavily gushing cunt. My hips bucked uncontrollably as my new lover penetrated my tiny virgin pussy, causing me to nearly throw her off of my gyrating body from the strength of my wild humping motions. A sense of deep, visceral satisfaction welled up from deep inside of my slippery little gash as it was stuffed full of firm, feminine fingers. I wailed in abject lust at the feeling of having something fucked into my womanhood, wishing that her fingers were thicker, longer, _bigger_.

Unbidden, the thought of the hung black boy from the restaurant, Brian, filled my mind. His penis had been at least five inches long, and quite wide, and it was completely flaccid. I imagined that it would grow _much_ larger than that when it became hard. I pictured his huge cock tearing into my little hole, stretching it out and making it _his_. I moaned deeply again at the lewd thought, and at the sexy, slutty things that the blonde who I barely knew was doing to my incredibly sensitive body. I squealed and sobbed my way through the never-ending orgasm that tore through me as the hot little blonde forced another finger up inside of me. I _really_ wished that she had something _bigger_ to stuff up there.

'God, I wish that Lisa had a big, fat dick to fuck me with!' I thought. The mental image of such a cute, petite girl with an enormous cock and a pair of fat, round testicles jutting out over her delicious little pussy intensified my orgasm, making me gasp and pant. My inhibitions were lowered, and I was feeling so much pleasure that I was almost completely out of control, barely coherent at best. That was probably what led to me fucking up really badly with my healing power again.

I _really_ need to stop doing that.

Golden lightning flowed from my hands, which were still tangled up in Lisa's long blonde hair, the jagged, nearly undirected spikes of power coursing through her body. The other girl was nearly as incoherent as I was at that point. Her own little pussy was winking open and closed as it spurted girly cum onto my legs as she ground her delicious little snatch against me, cumming hard. Lisa's eyes were tightly shut as she continued to suck a never ending tit-load of thick, sweet booby-cum from my still spurting nipples. Her formerly flat tummy was pooching out slightly from the amount of my milk that she had consumed, but evidently she couldn't make herself stop.

As blissed out as I was from the horny little teenybopper playing my body like it was an instrument, I didn't even _notice_ that my healing power was active until well after the damage was done. Responding to my horny, depraved desires, the golden light filling Lisa's body did my bidding, as it had each and every time I had used it. This time, however, I wasn't even aware that I had ordered it to do anything. Taking cues from my lustful imaginings and the only coherent thought I'd had about the sexy blond in the last few minutes, the Thinker's body _changed_.

An enormous bulge began forming above the teen's clitoris, swelling bigger and bigger, like some kind of fucked up tumor. Big and round, the lump continued to increase in size until it was nearly the size of one of Lisa's perky 'C' cup breasts. And then it exploded. The skin on the outside of the lump suddenly broke, and a gigantic coiled penis sprung forth, slapping wetly against my legs. Below this mammoth flaccid cock was a huge scrotum, containing two testicles, each the size of a small, squat eggplant.

Spitting out my nipples and yanking her fingers out of me, like my pussy had scalded her, Lisa stared down at her crotch in shock, her eyes the size of dinner plates. The sudden loss of stimulation caused my extra-long orgasm to end abruptly, and I blinked my watery eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. I looked up at the girl who was still lying on top of me, staring dumbly at first her milk coated face, and then the huge, sticky male organ which protruded from her previously all female body.

" _What the fuck_ , Taylor!?" cried Lisa, a notes of hysteria and anger coloring her voice.

I met her eyes, my mouth hanging open in shock. My body was still shaking a bit as orgasmic aftershocks coursed through me, and my expression continued to espouse sheer, stupefied surprise. I moved my gaze back and forth, alternating between taking in her beautiful, feminine face and the huge, veiny horse-sized cock hanging limp above her sticky little snatch. The same downy golden fur which Lisa's mons were dusted with decorated the root of her new prick; the soft, fluffy pubic hair somehow feminizing the huge, dangerous looking organ.

My superhuman mind whirled, my brain computing the best way to handle this situation, coming up with dozens of strategies to navigate my way through the minefield that my unconscious action had created. I weighed the pros and cons of several things that I might say or do, trying to figure out how to somehow salvage _something_ from this monumental cluster-fuck. I prepared to part my lips, getting ready to deliver the perfect sentence which would make all of this right. It was all for naught, however, because my stupid mouth was already moving.

"Oops?" I found myself saying.

" _God dammit_ , Taylor..." sighed Lisa as her penis, still laying on my leg, twitched.


	5. Interlude I

[WARNING: This chapter contains graphic sexual content. Read at your own peril!]

 **The Demigod of Brockton Bay**

 **A Worm/Demigods CYOA Story**

 **Interlude I - Danny**

Sometimes life takes us in unexpected directions. Take today, for instance; I certainly didn't expect to wake up this morning looking like some kind of nietzschean superman, complete with inhumanly oversized genitalia and real kung-fu grip. But still, despite my expectations, it happened. That's life for you, I guess… even the good things tend to come from out of left field.

Another example of things I would have never imagined happening to me would include most of the events of this morning and this afternoon. I certainly didn't expect to learn that my only daughter is some kind of Divinely empowered super-cape, or that she would be the cause of the aforementioned changes to my formally unimpressive anatomy. The fact that my Taylor could, if she so chose, transform a hundred pencil thin office workers like I had been into greek gods _every single day_ was probably the most jarring surprise. Or at least the one that I was most concerned about.

I know that my daughter thinks she can handle the heat if anyone catches wind of her ability to turn perfectly ordinary people into capes with a touch, but even if she's right I'm still worried about that. I'm forcing myself to compartmentalize all of this stuff so I don't go mad, so my worries on _that_ particular matter go right back into the tiny, sectioned off area of my mind where I've decided they will live until I have time to _properly_ freak out.

My little girl needs me too much for me to scare her away by being loud and irrational right now, so I simply won't be those things. At least not to _her_. If this new body of mine passes muster, then perhaps I'll go out tonight and wander around the neighborhood where I work, try to find some neo nazis or some crackheads looking for trouble. I was able to crack heads above my weight class back when I was a regular guy, so a few junkies and white supremacists shouldn't pose any problems to me now.

But, I digress… I wasn't talking about hypothetical stress relief exercises that I may or may not choose to engage in at a later time. I was talking about how rudely life sometimes violates one's expectations. This morning, when I started to learn the bare basics of a martial arts style from a manga certainly fits the theme. I had never, ever in all my days thought I'd see someone engage in midair combat ala Saotome, but this morning I saw _my own daughter_ perform those feats, with my own eyes. And trust me, I wasn't _anywhere near_ the stash of cannabis I keep behind the loose floorboard inside of my closet at the time.

I was again treated to an incredible, nigh unbelievable event occurring when my daughter, in the guise of an Archangel sent from heaven, miraculously healed the sick and cured the crippled on the floor of an overpriced burger joint. Oddly enough, I watched this event while sitting beside an illusionary copy of Taylor, who then pretended to record herself performing the healing with the nonexistent camera of an illusionary cell phone. It twists my brain into knots just to think about the strange shell game that she performed on the fly, with seemingly no effort at all.

And afterward… After the fruit of my own loins had healed that poor girl, curing some type of normally fatal brain injury, I certainly _did not_ expect what happened next. Namely, being left in the dining room of a restaurant filled with shocked people who had just had all of their ailments and afflictions cured by what appeared to be _real live_ angel... or a 'monstrous cape', or a regular parahuman with a _really good_ costume… It varied depending on who you asked. I had been sitting at the same table, next to Taylor's hologram... _for over an hour and a half_.

I sat there by myself, slowly eating the last remaining pieces of the enormous burger Taylor had forced me to order. It had long since gone cold, but I kept munching on it, to give myself a legitimate reason to still be here. I was worried that the illusionary copy of my daughter would be exposed any minute, and I was doing everything I could to hide the fact that to the best of my knowledge, I _couldn't_ leave. The clone had made no move to follow me the few times I'd got up from my seat to refill my drink. I was forced to order another sandwich, which I was too full to eat, when the waitress looked like she was getting ready to kick 'us' out. I was _very_ glad to discover that the insubstantial clone of my daughter was programmed to handle simple interactions; it had politely told the waitress "No thank you." when it was asked if 'she' wanted anything else.

If only my _real_ daughter was this polite. Making her father wait while she was out dealing with a potentially dangerous situation, an illusion left in her place which might cause her powers to be exposed at any moment… It would have been enough to give me an ulcer, if my stomach wasn't, according to that same child "tougher than a cannon ball". I found myself simultaneously hoping that there was some pressing yet harmless reason for her continued absence, and that she had simply forgotten about me. I didn't want her to be _hurt_ , or in trouble, or anything like that… I just wanted there to be a _damn_ good explanation for why she left me sitting on this fucking mess. I really didn't want my daughter to be just another inconsiderate asshole… that's _definitely_ not the person that Annette Rose and I raised her to be.

A problem cropped up shortly into my second hour of waiting. As I sat there, sipping soda from the plastic bucket the no-long Fugly Bob dared to call a cup, I felt a very urgent call of nature. This was probably due to the fact that I was on my third bucket of Dr. Pepper. We didn't really keep sugary drinks at home, and I had loved this particular soda since I was a kid. 'The Doctor' was one of the areas my normally unflagging willpower didn't extend to… which is the main reason for the lack of soda at home. If I'd started stocking our fridge with Dr. Pepper then I had no doubt that I would long since contracted diabetes. I 'held it in' as long as I could, but soon enough I was forced to leave the table and seek a restroom.

I sincerely hoped that the illusion would be enough to fool people… If it wasn't then my daughter and I could be in for some serious problems in the very near future. I hurried to the little boy's room as fast as I could, my upgraded bladder muscles doing their best to keep the raging river inside of me from gushing out… I _really_ needed to pee. Those cups were probably near a gallon in size, and I had drunk _three_ of them. Thank God for my physiological upgrades, or I would have probably already fallen to the dread ' _betis_ from this afternoon's overindulgences alone.

When I found the men's room door I paused, a sinking feeling in my gut. I stood there, in the hallway off of the main dining room of the eatery, a look of horror etched across my face. I looked at the most terrible, expectation violating thing I had seen all day. According to the cute little cartoon on the sign on the door, the men's room was out of order. The no-doubt illegally reproduced picture of Ziggy holding a wrench and shrugging his shoulders was of little comfort in the face of my excruciating need to urinate. I potty-danced my way back to the counter, and stood in front of the same waitress who had been helping me during my entire extended stay in the burger joint today.

"I'm sorry to bother you, miss." I said to the young girl. While an adult, she had to be in her early twenties at most. She might even still be a teenager, I mused. The young girl turned to look at me, a genuine smile on her youthful face. She was fairly pretty, I noted, and had straight red hair held in a bun under the Fugly Bob's ballcap she wore. Orange freckles dotted her face, which contained large green eyes and cute little button nose set over full, candy apple red lips. "Is there another restroom I can use? There's a sign on the men's room door that says it's out of order." I explained, a sheepish smile on my face.

She gave me a cute little smirk,gesturing toward the back of the store. "Sure, mister. Follow me; I'll let you into the employee washroom." Leaving her fellow cashier to man the front, a Pimply Faced Youth who exemplified the type, I followed her behind the counter. I made sure to keep my lecherous old eyes glued to her tight little butt as the (much too young for me) girl led me deep into the secret interior of my favorite burger joint.

We passed the kitchens, and despite my desire to the contrary, I was only able to sneak a single glance at the arcane mysteries taking place inside before we were past. One of these days, I vowed to myself, I _would_ figure out how the burgers here were made. Despite my best efforts, I could never get the beef to taste quite the same when I made burgers at home. My guide and I traveled down a short hallway, emerging in a break room with two single person bathrooms, one on either side.

She gestured toward one of the washroom doors. "Here ya go, mister. Rules say that I have to wait here in the break room while you're in the back, so I'll lead you out when you're done." I thanked her, sneaking a glance at the the little cutie's modest chest; it looks like she was sporting a pair of incredibly perky B-Cup titties. Her nametag read Wendy. I chuckled at the irony of a redheaded girl named Wendy working at a burger restaurant that didn't share her name, as I closed the bathroom door behind me. 'At least she doesn't have pigtails,' I thought. I frowned when the thought of cute little Wendy in pigtails caused my heavy manhood to twitch.

Standing in front of the toilet, I unzipped my pants and prepared to, as they say, 'unleash the kraken'. There was a slight issue, though… My penis, which was patently _not_ the one I'd had when I went to sleep the night before, was now _far_ too thick to fit through the fly of my jeans. I had to undo the button above the zipper and pull down my boxers to let it through, as it was also much too wide to fit through the flap in the font of my underwear. I blushed a little, thinking about how the increase to my endowment had come about.

It was very, _very_ nice that I was now the proud owner of an enormous cock, but the fact that it was my teenage daughter who had gifted it to me was a more than a little uncomfortable to think about. I _don't think_ that this was a sign of some hithero unnoticed incestual yearning on Taylor's part, and she certainly _seemed_ uncomfortable about the whole thing. But what did I know about teenage girls? I resolved to talk to her about sometime soon… I didn't want any weird ideas cropping up in her head. I turned my attention back to the massive tool, which I could barely fit in the palm of my hand.

I had been a huge geek in high school and college, never even getting a date until I was in my early twenties. Sure, I had fucked a few girls during my high school years while at parties or events, but that was the 70's… being promiscuous was practically expected back then. And it was definitely a humbling experience when the same girl who gave you deep throat blowjob in the back of her brother's van at a concert wouldn't even talk to you the next day in English class, let me tell you. I _still_ had no idea how to talk to young girls, even to this day. Probably the reason Taylor and I had drifted so far apart after Annette's death.

I sincerely hoped that Taylor wasn't trying to tell me something with this not-so-little gift… it was disconcerting to even _think_ about. All these thoughts passed through my head as I pulled out my enormous flaccid prick and aimed it's apple-sized head at the water in the toilet bowl. 'Jesus…' I thought, 'I even have to _hold_ it differently now.' I found the four-fingered grip I had used previously while pissing wholly insufficient for the girth of my enhanced equipment. I had to improvise; I grabbed my tool like I did when I jacked off, wrapping my entire hand around it. I noted happily that even soft, the shaft of my penis was much too big around for my fingers to close. There was at least an inch gap between my thumb and middle finger.

Making sure I was holding on tight, I relaxed the muscles holding back my urine and let fly. When the heavy sound of crashing water hit my ears I nearly fucked up and sprayed the wall beside the toilet. Only my enhanced reflexes saved the restaurant's drywall from receiving a golden shower. The monster I held in my hand was evacuating an enormous stream of fluid, many times what I was used to producing when I took a leak. It felt like my bladder had been enlarged as well… there was absolutely no way I would be able to fit the gallons of soda I'd drank in there otherwise. The racket was _extremely_ loud, sounding like a combination of a bathtub filling and a pot of water boiling over. As the bowl filled, I became concerned that I might overflow it. I counted my lucky stars when the stream of slightly used Dr. Pepper began to taper off with a little room to spare in the toilet.

I was just finishing up my piss when I heard a soft clicking sound come from behind me. Not able to turn around fully due to the inch-wide stream of urine still arcing from the head of my fat dick, I looked over my shoulder. My eyes went wide as Wendy the waitress stepped into the washroom, closing the door behind her. She did what _I_ should have done once the door was closed, and locked it. When she turned around to face me again there was a wicked look on her face, as if the petit sweetheart was about to do something that her parents wouldn't approve of.

I may have been clueless when I was nothing but a geeky kid, but not so much these days. It took me less than a second to put two and two together, and but another to decide if I was going to let Wendy have her way with me or not. Normally I'm not into young girls, preferring my women to be a similar age to my own. Women are like a fine wine, etcetera, etcetera. But, the fact of the matter is that I hadn't had sex in over two years, and that right now I was _incredibly_ horny... more so than I had ever been in my life. I blamed most of the intense arousal I felt on my new flawless state of health and the huge, menacing thing hanging between my legs, but I'll cop to some of the responsibility for some of it. I looked her up and down with assessing eyes. I was going to go for it.

I turned sideways to give the young girl I'd decided to fuck a better view of what she'd soon have inside of her, shaking it off to let the drops of piss still clinging to my immense cockhead flick off into the overfilled toilet bowl. Wendy literally _jumped_ upon seeing my overgrown trouser snake for the first time, her eyes becoming so wide I wondered for a moment if one of her parents had been a bush baby. When her cheeks began to flush, turning her creamy skin a fetching rose color, I knew that it was fight or flight time. I finished cleaning off the object of her scrutiny, and then stepped toward the waitress slowly, giving her plenty of time to decide if she would rather flee than be fucked by the monster living between my legs. If she had an ounce of brains in her head then she'd run like the wind; the huge slab of meat I was packing would _fucking wreck_ a tight little thing like her.

'Thank God.' I thought, as the sexy youngster stepped toward me, her eyes peeling themselves off of my enormity so that she could look up into my eyes. Her breath was coming out in puffs instead of the normal steady, metered exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and her pupils were dilated. I could see tiny points protruding from the front of her button-down work shirt, and my upgraded nose caught a very faint whiff of a familiar scent that I hadn't smelled in _far_ too long. All signs were indicating that I was face to face with an extremely horny, _very_ willing girl who intended to let me fuck her stupid. It looked like Wendy liked men with huge cocks. I silently thanked Taylor for being so late, and pulled the cute little redhead into my arms. A slight gas left her lips as I pressed the short girl's tight body against my own.

My dick started to become erect the very moment I decided that I was going to fuck this cute young thing, and it was already so big that it was getting difficult to hold her as tightly as I was. Thankfully, like it used to before its upgrade, my dick pointed straight up once it really got going, leaving me more than close enough to lean down and plant my lips on the short girl's slightly pursed cupid's bow. Wendy opened her mouth for my tongue almost instantly, moaning as our oral appendages rubbed against each other. Her body melted against mine as I kissed her, her eyes closing as she pressed her pointy little tits into my chest. Wendy's mouth tasted _so good_ … It had been so long since I'd kissed a woman that I'd nearly forgotten how amazing it felt.

I stood in the employee restroom making out with a girl who might only be a few years older than my daughter, running my big hands over the beautiful young woman's short, compact body. She hummed and moaned into my mouth as I explored her erogenous zones, my skilled fingers discovering the locations that turned her on the most. When I started slowly removing her top Wendy broke off our kiss to help me. The smiling redhead took off her black slacks and then peeled off her black work shirt without unbuttoning it, exposing her smooth, lithe legs and the small beautifully formed breasts that had been hidden beneath her shirt.

Wendy's tits were a work of art. They were a little smaller than I had guessed, a full A-Cup instead of a B, but they were absolutely gorgeous. Her little cones stood straight out from her chest, with tiny, pointy nipples that turned upward protruding from each of her salmon colored areolas. I took a moment just to bask in their glory. My mouth began watering and my loins aching with need at the sweet sight before me. The young girl looked at me boldly, little hands set on wide hips as she pushed her pointy little torpedo tits out with pride.

"My God, Wendy… you're gorgeous." I told her, causing the redhead to blush and smile proudly. A confident, satisfied expression replaced the almost defiant one she'd been wearing before my compliment. Looking at her sexy little titties made my enormous erection jerk and twitch.

"You're pretty good lookin' yourself, Mister…?" She trailed off, fishing for my name.

"I'm Danny, sweetheart." I said, reaching for her waist and hauling her up into the air. Wendy let out a little squeak as I hoisted her up until her adorable schoolgirl boobies were right in front of my face, the delicious puffy cones only a hairsbreadth from my open mouth. I slowly leaned in for a taste, taking nearly an entire breast into my mouth. I began gently laving her sweet little titty with my wide tongue, working the pointy little breast over thoroughly. I sucked and nibbled on Wendy's right tit until she was moaning in pleasure and he breath started coming out in desperate gasps.

I took a moment to shift both of our bodies around so that we were more comfortable. I put my hands together and made a seat for her tight little ass to plant itself on, then hoisted her up a bit higher so that I could continue my work. I switched to the other pointy little cone after a moment, repeating the actions that I had performed on the first. I swirled my tongue around her small puffy nipples as I sucked on them, making Wendy whimper at the sensation. I used my thick fingers to lightly probe and rub her cloth covered mound since she was nice enough to sit on my hands, gently stimulating her tight pussy. I could feel her underwear becoming moist as I paid her gorgeous miniature breasts the attention that such masterpieces deserved.

Eventually the spot directly in front of Wendy's pussy was completely soaked through, which was my cue to put a hold on the breast worship I'd been performing, and find another target for my lustful attentions. There wasn't an awkward moment or a second wasted, because I already had a target in mind… Wendy's delicious smelling womanhood. I sat her round little ass down on the counter that housed the bathroom's sink, grateful that there was an expanse of empty space next to the washbasin. I knelt down on the floor in front of the panting girl, licking my lips in anticipation.

Wendy's eyes were lidded as the beautiful young woman watched me peel the damp underpants off of her slippery crotch. I set the moist garment them down gently on the other side of the sink, and gave Wendy a smile. She looked at me through half lidded eyes as I gently spread the gorgeous young woman's legs apart. I knee-walked up to the redhead's drooling pussy, my eyes taking in every detail of her engorged sex as my face grew ever closer. Wendy's swollen labia were fairly petit, though at the moment they were heavily engorged due to her state of arousal. The young woman's vaginal mound was completely bald and glistening, but just above she had a sparse, neatly trimmed patch of soft red pubic hair. Her arousal had caused her inner lips to bloom, leaving the interior of her gorgeous vaginal mound open and ready for my attentions. I licked my lips in anticipation at the sight before me.

Wendy's clitoris was bright red, and a little larger than most women's at nearly an inch in length. The erect love button was projecting out from its protective sheath, the sexy little nub hard as a rock. Below her clit, I spied Wendy's vaginal opening. The mouth of her sopping wet tunnel was yawning, her cunt gaping open over an inch wide. Wendy's cunt was drooling lubricant like crazy, rivulets of her clear juice running down her taint and between the round cheeks of her ass, all the way down to her tiny pink asshole. The opening of Wendy's cunt was quite a bit larger than I had expected to see on such a young, petite girl, and I could see _deep_ up inside of her. This meant that the delicious little sweetheart was either _extremely_ horny for me... or that she'd repeatedly had large toys or cocks stuffed up inside of her, stretching out her cunny until it opened up like this permanently, gaping nice and wide.

It didn't matter if Wendy's snatch was a little bit loose. My cock was so long and thick that I doubt she'd ever had something its size shoved up inside of her. Her slightly gaping pussy was a blessing, really… it meant that I had a pretty good chance of fitting my oversized endowment inside of her without hurting the girl. If Wendy had been inexperienced, or god forbid _a_ _virgin_ , then I would have never cracked open her little twat with my monster cock; not in the time we had, and definitely not during a quick fuck in a public bathroom.

Wendy was aroused and ready to take me inside of her, but I hadn't tasted pussy in years. I pushed my head forward, tongue extended as I made contact with her juicy vaginal mound. Pushing my face against her crotch until my lips were flush with her mound, I slowly dug my big, fat tongue deep up inside of the young woman's hot, juicy hole. Wendy's burning hot cunt squeezed my tongue as I forced it into her. We moaned simultaneously as I filled the sexy little redhead's snatch with my warm, writhing tongue. My moans of pleasure disappeared into the juncture between her legs as I tasted her delicious pussy, the musky, tangy flavor of a sweet, clean vagina like heaven to my sex-starved mouth. Wendy's slim muscular thighs closed over my ears, her feet touching as she crossed her ankles behind my head and began fucking her sweet cunt onto my long tongue and open mouth.

I felt Wendy's little hands bury themselves in my short cropped hair as she began fucking my face urgently. The young woman grabbed fistfulls of my hair, tugging on it hard when I surprised her by beginning to tongue-fuck her burning hot snatch forcefully. My thick oral appendage caused her pussy produce wet, nasty sounds as I shoved my tongue in and out of her wide-open fuckhole over and over again while using my nose to tickle her clit. Looking up into Wendy's beautiful green eyes, I pressed my tongue into her vagina as deep as it would go and then flicked the tip _upward_ , causing the it to graze her G-spot. She went absolutely _wild_ when I did that, pulling my hair so hard that it would have hurt a normal guy badly. Wendy closed her eyes and whined, grinding back at me with abandon as I continued to core out her slippery cunt with my tongue.

The sexy young woman began shuddering as I continued to eat her out, her ass shaking as she fucked back at me jerkily. I could tell that little Wendy was getting ready to cum. She began making a high pitched whine as her hot little hole clenched around my tongue spastically. She was almost there. I moved upward a bit and nipped her clit with my teeth and then began lashing it strongly with my tongue over and over again. Wendy clutched my hair in a death grip as she came, moaning like a whore as her delicious snatch began spilling pussy cum all over my face and shirt. I kept lapping her clit throughout her orgasm, lengthening and intensifying her cum. Finally, her body stilled and she slowly came down from the ecstatic high that she'd been riding due to the actions of my skilful mouth. I planted light butterfly kisses on the young waitress's mons and inner thighs as she recovered.

Wendy pulled my head backward by the hair hard; when I looked up at her, there was a crazy look in her eye. I licked my lips as I stood up, shooting Wendy a sly smile. I pushed my pants and boxers down around my ankles and then pulled them off of my feet, leaving me bare from the waist down. My steel-hard manhood was pointed upward at an angle, it's enormous cockhead reaching nearly to my chest. The girth of my enhanced prick was so wide that I doubt both of Wendy's little hands would have been enough to completely encircle it. I was proven correct when the short girl grabbed my enormous cock by the root and pulled me forward toward her tiny ass, which was perched on the very edge of the bathroom counter.

The young woman's face was flushed and her eyes full of lust. As Wendy stared down at my cock, a hungry express crept over her features. Her small, pink tongue darted out, and the young woman licked her lips slowly. Her eyes were glazed, like she was stoned; she was so turned on that I doubt the sexy little thing even knew what she was doing. Wendy the waitress _moaned_ at the sight of my huge dick, her small, soft hands rubbing and squeezing all over my turgid, rock hard organ as she studied its elephantine proportions intently. Her beautiful face was full of lust and greed as she tugged and rubbed all over my enormity. Her hands felt _amazing_. As she hefted one of my gigantic nuts, a strand of drool actually fell from her lips, the clear liquid landing on one of her rock-hard nipples.

" _God dammit_ , Danny…" she hissed, "you really have a _huge cock_ , don't you?" Wendy asked, her voice dripping with concentrated lust and badly restrained sexual excitement. I simply gave her a huge, shit eating grin. She ignored it, continuing to stare at my big prick, which was beginning to leak precum all over the place. "Gawd, I _love_ big, fat cocks. I _knew_ that you had a really huge one when I heard you pissing... only men with really big cocks make such a loud sound when they pee."

The sexy redhead continued to work her hands up and down the long shaft of my monster, pulling them all the way from root to tip with as much force as her slim, feminine arms could muster. "Fuck, I love huge cocks _so much_ ," she muttered again. Drool continued to fall from Wendy's open mouth as she worked on my prick. The sexy young girl used the enormous quantity of precum that was leaking out of my flaring piss slit to lubricate it as she tugged on the gigantic thing with her small, soft hands. I moaned in pleasure at the sensation, causing Wendy to snap out of the lust-induced haze that she'd fallen into at the sight of my monster.

Wendy jerked her head up, tearing her eyes off of her prize and looking straight at me. She was panting like she'd run a marathon and I could see a continuous stream of honey drooling from her gaping vagina. The redhead pulled me right up against her by the root of my dick and pressed the oversized knob at the end of my cock against the much smaller entrance to her burning hot cunt.

The incredibly aroused youngster freed my prick from her constricting grip, and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. Pulling my face close, Wendy looked at me desperately and pushed her hips upward, toward my massive weapon. "Oh, God, fuck me, fuck me!" She whimpered, " _Please_ ," she begged, "you _have to_ put it inside of me!" She moaned in frustration as she tried in vain to force the big, fat head of my oversized dick into her too-tight hole.

I smirked down at adorable redhead, my eyes filled with steel. "Little girl, I'm going to fuck you like you've never been fucked before," I promised the young beauty, who was whimpering with desire. She was _literally_ _begging_ me to take her hard, and I didn't intend to disappoint her. I pulled my hips back a bit, lined the head of my dick up with Wendy's gaping pussy, and pushed forward. As the head of my cock began forcing its way into the pretty little waitress, I made sure to use the same level of strength a man of my size would normally have. I was going to fuck Wendy good and hard, yes, but I certainly didn't want to hurt her in the process.

My huge, thick cockhead, bigger around than my clenched fist, slammed into the redhead's sweet little pussy. The young woman's vagina, which was roughly an inch across as it hung open, drooled crazily as my hardness was shoved against the too-small hole. Huge cock and tight cunt pressed against each other, but the outcome of the struggle was never in doubt. My super-powered dick won the battle handily. The firm thrust I gave her forced the small girl's incredibly tight snatch to give way, and my entire enormous cockhead bulled its way inside. I groaned and the red haired waitress made a high pitched whimpering noise at the delicious penetration; her sweet, wonderful little cunt sucking and milking the head of my enormity.

I looked down at Wendy's face as I pulled back tiny bit and then jackhammered forward, forcing a few more inches of my girthy monster into her pulsing love tunnel. Her eyes were nearly closed in bliss, and she hissed when I fucked a few more inches of my long dick into her, shaking under the strain of containing so much cock. She was in for a surprise, though… it wasn't even halfway in. Not even close. I gave her another taste, rearing back and then muscling my way deeper, her warm, tight gash opening up wide under the assault.

Wendy cried out as I pushed _hard_ , stabbing deeply into her core and lodging half a dozen more insanely thick inches up inside of her. I had over half of my python fucked into her gorgeous, gaping cunt now, and I intended to fuck as much of it into her amazingly tight little cunny as I could. To that end, I reached down and grabbed her wide hips, holding them firmly as I began a series of short, fast jackhammer thrusts that buried an inch or more of prick inside her on each stroke.

I watched my thick cock, wider than any beer can ever invented, disappear into the nearly incoherent girl who I was using as my own person cocksleeve. I thrust my manhood deeper and deeper inside of her, _tight_ , wet heat wrapped around my jutting erection as I fucked my way deeper into the sweet little youngster's core. When I was about three quarters of the way inside, the precum spewing tip of my huge dong ran aground, jamming into the back wall of Wendy's cock filled little muffin. 'Oh, God that felt good,' I thought, so I did it again. I pulled a few thick inches out, and then rammed it back inside, slamming into the waitress's cervix once more.

Wendy _went nuts_ when I jammed my cock against the end of her snug fuckhole. Wailing and convulsing, she forced me to give up the grip on her hips and wrap my arms around her body so that she didn't fall over or slide off the counter she was sitting on. When she was stable, I placed one arm around around her, holding the back of her neck, and the other on her smooth thigh. Now that I had a good handhold again, I started fucking in and out of her gripping vagina, pulling my big dick halfway out, and then pushing it back in all the way to the end of her tight snatch. My young lover continued to jerk her hips and cry out as I kept on fucking her, her stuffed cunt orgasming long and intensly around my swollen cock.

I slowed my strokes dramatically when her cum ended, only pushing a few inches in and out of her as she panted, recovering from the huge drawn out cum that I'd given her. When Wendy was coherent again, she pushed the hair out of her eyes that had come loose from her bun, and I could see unshed tears there. Fearing that I had done something wrong, or that I was hurting her, I was unprepared when she grabbed me as tightly as she could, and pressed her thick, soft lips up against mine in a searing hot kiss. The sexy young girl held me close for a moment before pulling back, her eyes wet with tears and a radiant smile on her face.

"Oh, you big cocked motherfucker! No one's _ever_ made me cum like that before. I want you to _pound the fuck_ out of my little pussy, shove that huge fucking dick inside of me just as hard as you can." She whimpered as I gave her a long, solid thrust. "Slam fuck me…" she panted as I started picking up the pace, "Treat me like I'm your little whore. Fucking use me! Fill me up!" She cried out as rammed her cervix as hard as I felt she could take. "FUCK ME!"

"Ungh!" She cried, starting to shake again. "Make me your fucking cump dump!" She mewled, her mouth opening as I really started in on her. I pistoned my hips back and forth a little harder than before, causing the sensitive end of my knob to dig sweetly into the end of her cunt, the delicious, sucking and pulling her cunt muscles were using to milk my huge cock _so good_ that I threw my head back and closed my eyes. Precum was being pumping out of my dick continually now, filling her tightness with greasy, slippery lubrication that allowed me to fuck Wendy's snug snatch even harder and faster.

As I pumped her cunt, I felt my balls begin to swell and tighten, and the constant pleasure coursing through my cock increased dramatically. My already astoundingly huge organ started getting even bigger as it swelled up, preparing to unleash all of the pent-up cum that I'd been building up since I'd begun fucking my cock in and out of this hot little slut. God, her pussy felt _so good_ wrapped around me and sucking nastily on my wide prick.

"Shit!" I said, my face contorting as an enormous orgasm approached. "I'm going to fill you up with cum, you sexy little bitch!" I snarled at her, causing Wendy to close her eyes and moan. She thrust her pussy back against me, causing my cock to slam into her cervix. "I'm gonna pump a huge load of cum _right up inside of you_!" I promised, as I stabbed my dick deep inside of her. The huge, pre-weeping head of my oversized organ hit the waitress's cervix _hard_ , causing the pointy tip on the end of my dick to sink right into the middle of the opening to Wendy's womb.

The feeling of the very end of my dick lodging itself into her deepest spot pushed Wendy over the edge again. Her slippery, well lubed fuck tube started squeezing me hard again, hastening my climax. I pulled back, and then slammed down, again stuffing the tip partially into her cervix. I pulled almost all the way out of her, and then _shoved_. I _needed_ to be in her all the way, _needed_ to fuck this horny little size queen with every inch that I had. This time, when my big, fat cock smashed into the entrance to her womb, the sexy little redhead's cervix opened up under the force of the blow, stuffing her tiny womb full of the enormous cockhead that had penetrated it.

The rest of my cock almost _leapt_ into her, as I buried the immense, ultra thick organ into Wendy's snug little snatch to the root. The sweet, accommodating girl who had begged me to fuck her wrapped her legs together behind me, crossing her heels. I guess she _really liked_ the idea of taking my cumload up inside of her. I really hoped that she was safe, or else Taylor might get a little sister. My knees went weak and my eyes nearly rolled up into the back of my head as the idea that I might be _impregnating_ this girl slammed into my mind. It was that thought that pushed me over the edge.

My huge, swollen testicles, each swollen to the size of a ripe eggplant, let out an audible gurgle as my orgasm began. I moaned long and deep as the tension holding my cum muscles back from delivering their sperm filled payload released. I pulled my dick almost all the way out, my face contorted in pleasure so intense that I have no words to describe it, and then _slammed_ downward, forcing the full length of my fat rod back into the hot, sucking pussy of the sweet little slut that I was fucking. When I felt the thinly stretched lips of her cunt wrap around the very base of the prick, the snug, elastic opening nearly failing due to the inhuman width of the thickest part of my massive shaft, I came. Hard.

"OH FUCK!" I bellowed, "Ungh! Here it comes! You _fucking slut_!" I shoved my hips down, grinding my enormous cockhead into the back wall of Wendy's tightly clenching womb as my nuts pulsed, feeling like they had exploded into sweet, delicious agony. A huge, wet heat moved deep inside of my groin, and suddenly an enormous torrent of scalding hot jizz shot down my cock, the thick, burning fluid tracing a trail of insanity inducing pleasure down the length of my fat third leg. Wendy wrapped her arms around me and pulled me tightly against her with her legs, forcing my enormous, spasming erection even deeper inside of her.

"Fuck a baby into me," Wendy whispered to me softly, her painted lips tickling my ear as they pressed against it. The sexy young woman bit down on my earlobe lightly and locked her arms and legs as my cock started to buck and shudder, another massive cum tearing through the redhead's sexy little body as I began my own orgasm.

The huge, swollen head of my cock expanded, sealing Wendy's uterus closed, and the slit at the end of the tip shot open. An enormous rope of immensely thick cum blasted straight up from my still churning nuts, shooting out from my cockhead into the deepest parts of the hot, sucking cunt I was buried in, inundating the tight young girl's stretched out pussy with a huge load of greasy baby batter. I growled and cried out horsely as I unloaded. Wendy clung to me tightly as I blasted the biggest load of cum _ever_ into her, the intense pleasure nearly unbearable.

All I could do was hold onto Wendy's wide, baby making hips as I was swept away by the overwhelmingly pleasurable feelings coming from deep inside of my highly modified sex organs. I kept fucking the huge load I was shooting into the gorgeous young woman who had been nice enough to let me impregnate her tight cunt, packing the deepest, _tightest_ part of her sweet little fuckhole full of the thickest, greasiest cocksnot that I'd ever ejaculated into a woman.

I battered Wendy's hot little snatch as I kept trying to fuck my dick into her deeper, pulling out an inch or two, and then slamming my cockhead back into her super snug womb. Each time I slammed all the way into her, my balls would clench explosively, and another enormous torrent of jizz would spew from my distended organ, flooding her once against with another batch of greasy sperm. My orgasm lasted a long time, several minutes at least, and I fucked each and every thick wadd of semen just as deep as I could into the girl I was using as my own personal cumdump.

My huge cock was so goddamn thick that the cloying, pudding like cum that I found myself ejaculating had no way to escape the deepest depths of Wendy's cunt. Her tummy, which was formally flat, with maybe a hint of soft, womanly padding, started swelling as I blasted her full of baby batter. Each time I groaned and released another volley of sperm, the sexy redhead whimpered, and her well fucked tummy became a little rounder as I blasted my jizz into her overfull womb. It was like watching a stop-motion pregnancy happening in real life, right in front of me. This entire experience was surreal, nothing like any sex I'd ever had before… more like something out of the bad star trek fanfics I used to read in 'zines back in college, where species of aliens never seen in the show performed physics defying sex acts with each other… but _so insanely pleasurable_ that I felt like I might die at any moment.

I mean, there's just _no way_ that my body could have contained the amount of semen I was shooting out. And its was dense enough that I doubt a normal human body could have even produced it… It felt like my cock was spewing toothpaste, for christ's sake! Then I remembered the bullshit martial arts that I'd been learning, and my 'upgrades'. I'd just lifted up a fucking oak tree, for God's sake, and then I'd polished off eight pounds of food and three gallons of soda.

I guess I no longer _did normal_. So I put all of the tiny complains taking up less than 1% of my attention out of my mind, and concentrated on what was _really_ important right now… namely, finishing the most epic orgasm of my life, and fucking as much thick cum as I could into the hot little redheaded slut who had jumped me in a public restroom. Maybe I'd even fuck her again, when I was done.

We didn't finish for a good, long while.


	6. Interlude II

[WARNING: This chapter contains graphic sexual content. Read at your own peril!]

 **The Demigod of Brockton Bay**

 **A Worm/Demigods CYOA Story**

 **Interlude II - Lisa**

Today had been a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions. Though I had awoken in the morning a slave, when I went to sleep in this evening I would spend the night dreaming as a free woman once more. My slave name is 'Tattletale', by the way, but my friends call me Lisa. It's not the name I was born with... _that one_ had been tainted irrevocably by the people who had given it to me. The people charged with my health and wellbeing had made series of selfish, greedy decisions that had led to me unofficially divorcing them. I no longer wanted anything to do with the sack of shit sperm and egg donors who had once claimed to be my parents. Leaving home, I had made the decision to put _that_ part of my life behind me forever.

I believe that my decision to leave home had been the right one. After what I'd been through, it was clear to me that I was totally justified in making it. Due to the perilous circumstances that followed my illegal emancipation, however, I will alway wonder if I made the _prudent_ choice in getting out when I did. I had only been free of my slimy family for a little over a month when everything went to hell in a handbasket. I had been living out of unoccupied apartments and houses, using real estate guides and prompts from my power to find the ones which were furnished and still had the utilities turned on. The ones which _wouldn't_ be getting calls from prospective buyers or renters while I was sleeping.

It was a cheap, practical way to live, though moving nearly every night was definitely not ideal. I was able to feed myself by shoplifting small items, never more than five or ten dollars worth of goods from a single place, and by soliciting 'donations' from those who could be easily persuaded to part with a bit of their disposable income. Or, to put it more bluntly, I sometimes picked the occasional pocket. Only from those who could afford it, and only a little at that. I never targeted anyone who was below upper middle class, and I made it a strict policy to only steal from assholes and stores owned by large, well insured corporations. The kind of people who deserved it, like my piece of shit parents.

Honestly, I could have been set up inside of a week if I wanted to be, either as a kept woman for some overly wealthy playboy or as a member of a parahuman gang. I even toyed with the idea of becoming a freelance information broker, using my powers to aid all comers... for the right price. I didn't do any of that, however, because I was bone weary of using my abilities to accumulate dirty money. It's what _they_ had forced me to do.

When I made the decision to run away, I had promised myself that I would no longer have any part of that scene. Looking back, I had been a complete idiot. I should have begun building up my resources and power base immediately, so that I would be less vulnerable. But I didn't. Sue me, I'm still a kid. What do you expect from me, wise decisions? I might be a Thinker, but having access to lots of information doesn't help me when it comes to figuring out how best to use it.

A few weeks after leaving my old home in Hartford, I landed in a shitty, dump of a place called Brockton Bay. I had _almost_ taken a bus to Boston, but for some reason the smaller, more run down of the two destinations had called to me, and I had found myself answering that call. Well, there was also the fact that I there were two rapists and a spree killer sitting on the next bus to Boston while I was buying my ticket... that definitely had something to do with my choice of destination. I phoned in an anonymous tip to the police using my latest burner phone as soon as I was on the bus and on my way to Brockton. Hopefully the authorities would be able to take the jerks I'd spotted into custody without casualties; one of the guys had pinged my power as a possible parahuman... maybe some kind of Blaster. 'Assholes,' I thought as I took apart the phone I'd used to place the call and threw the pieces out of the window while no one was looking. I leaned back in my seat as the motor coach rolled down the highway, kicking back as I rode toward my destination.

After arriving in the new town I really should have joined a group. I made some overtures, sure, but after pissing off the leader of a local team of mercenaries who were my best bet, I decided to keep my distance from other organizations. I was a little afraid that I would offend someone who had less restraint than Faultline did. Honestly, with the shit I said to her? She would have been totally justified in knocking the ever living _fuck_ out of me. That she had only had her Case 53 bodyguard, Gregor, toss me out on my ass meant that she was a real class-act. It was just bad luck that we both naturally rubbed each other the wrong way… I could have taken her crew to the next level with the kind of Thinker support I'm capable of providing.

After that I kept to myself mostly. I spent a lot of time people-watching and visiting the public library during the day, though occasionally I would take the odd walk, or visit the beach. I would find things to amuse myself by daylight, and then head off to an empty house or apartment that still had the heat turned on when it became dark. If I was hungry, I either picked a pocket or shoplifted a meal directly. I was a cut above the other homeless, thanks to my powers… I never went hungry or had to sleep on the street; not even once. I was circumspect when I used my powers, too, never leaving behind any clues when I used them for my own ends. At least, that's what I thought...

That's why it was so much of a surprise was a team of highly trained urban combat specialists armed with Tinkertech laser carbines cornered me in broad daylight. They chased me down like a pack of bloodhounds... and with about the same amount of ease. I did everything I could think of to throw them off once I realized I was being hunted. I did things that I _know_ should have worked to ditch them, but nothing worked. Nothing I did helped my situation in the slightest. Over the course of fleeing from them, I called the authorities from two different burner phones and a payphone, triggered an old lady's "Life Alert" bracelet, caused two traffic accidents, and tried hiding inside the walls of an abandoned factory... after skipping over two different rooftops to get there. I backtracked, changed my clothing in a little shop after buying a new outfit, and even tried hitching a ride with a pair of low-level E88 grunts… I could have been standing still for all the good those things did.

 _Any one_ of those things should have either made the mercs back off or allowed me to slip away unnoticed in the confusion. Instead, I watched in horror as the heavily armed team bulldozed through or danced around each of the obstacles I kept setting up for them like they weren't even there. Eventually they had me cornered, with no more cards to play, and they captured me. The huge, burly man who led the team trussed me up like a suckling pig, and then proceeded to drag me across town to his boss.

I was presented to a skeletal mother fucker with a snake fetish called Coil, who eyed me like a barn cat looks at a mouse. He was a self-professed 'Mastermind' who said that he wanted to "hire" my services. Of course what he _actually_ meant was that if I didn't agree to work for him, he would put a round from the .38 special in his desk drawer right through my brain. Needless to say I went to sleep _that_ night with a new 'employer'. The story of how I was enslaved was a pretty anticlimactic one, I know, but that didn't make it any easier to bear.

A little over a week of crying myself to sleep and dreaming of freedom followed before the slick bastard who had trapped me finally let me out of his secret underground base. I know, right? Coil had probably watched _way_ too many Bond movies as a kid. When he 'released', it was only because he knew that _I knew_ that I couldn't escape his clutches without dying or being re-captured… at least not on my own. I was introduced to my new "teammates" by a third party, and the Undersiders were formed. Our teams reason for existence was nothing more or less than to be a cat's paw for Coil's more covert operations.

At its most basic, the Undersiders were a gang of small-time criminals meant to serve the mastermind's short term goals and provide a covert means of projecting force. He needed, or would need, a group that was not directly tied to his established power base. My role on the team was to be the link back to the main man himself. I was also supposed to subtly (and not so subtly) encourage the others to place a much of their trust and loyalty in Coil's hands as possible, as time went on. We were valuable to him, for sure... but I got the idea that none of the members of this new parahuman force were truly irreplaceable.

The boss could, _and would_ , discard any and all of us if it was convenient for him to do so. I got the feeling that I was the one with the most direct value to Coil. Really good Thinkers are really rare, so that wasn't surprising. Still, even _I_ was was a disposable asset to him. I really, _really_ didn't want to find out what he would do to me should the team fail, so I resolved to do my best to make this gathering of miscreants and loners as successfully as possible. Back when he was keeping me on base, right at the beginning, I would sometimes lie awake in bed, after crying myself out. Several times I wondered if I should have just let Coil kill me when his soldiers first brought me in. It definitely would have been easier. Oh, there's no way I would have done such a thing, it was just an idle fantasy due to the massive stress I was under.

When I was first captured, Coil had _clearly_ had no idea of the true level of my Thinker power. My power clued me in about that; he had simply been adding another useful person to his organization. He had seen a lone parahuman, one who could easily be captured, and had simply seized the opportunity to acquire another valuable possession. It had taken days or observing me for him to gain a clue as to the true extent of my abilities. And when he did… _that's_ when he had decided to make me a part of his Undersiders project. To use a valuable asset like me in this way, he must have had big plans for the group.

The other members were alright, especially Brian; for a supposedly hardened criminal, he was a real boyscout. If he hadn't viewed me as a little sister, and if he hadn't had such large pores... and so many gross habits... If my _fucking power_ didn't keep telling me that his _this_ or _that_ , was so fucking _wrong_ or _disgusting_ , etcetera, etcetera... then I might have actually been attracted to him. My gift is my curse, though, and due to my Thinker power I can't look at _anyone_ without seeing the worst in them. I hadn't been able to find a single, solitary human who didn't completely turn me off, given just a little bit of time. Becoming a parahuman has ruined any chance I had of someday having a real relationship... or even something as simple and uncomplicated as a quick fuck.

It's a really shitty deal, because by nature I'm a _very_ horny girl. Ever since I was midway through puberty, I've needed sex like a normal person needs air. I'd fucked my way through half my class before my trigger, males and female, and I'd been lustfully eyeballing the other half before my brother killed himself. Let me tell you, dealing with _that_ while being forced to go cold turkey when it came to sex was completely, _utterly_ rotten.

Gaining powers didn't decrease my sex drive in any way, it just made it so that any prospective partner I looked at was rendered unacceptable for one reason or another. Needless to say, for the past year my fingers had constantly been sore. I would sometimes be forced to rub my needy little cunt half a dozen times each night before I'd be able to go to sleep. That didn't include the two or three breaks I'd take each day to frig myself in a bathroom, or in other private places that I'd find here or there. I had sometimes imagined that I would find a lover perfect enough for my power to accept, but deep inside I _knew_ that it would never happen. _Nobody_ was _that_ perfect. Before I met _her_ , I'd given up all hope of ever having sex again. My displeasure with this state of affairs was starting to show, too… My forced celibacy was making me become snarkier and more vengeful, and quicker to anger… my stress levels were through the roof. And the worst part of it was that there was no end in sight!

This had only been my third day as an Undersider. We had first been introduced two days ago, the four of us discussing the terms that our "mysterious boss" had given us if we agreed to form a group together. Coil had pressured me hard to get the others to join, and I found myself doing anything and everything I could to convince them. It had taken everything I had in reserve to get them to agree, completely exhausting my ability to use my power each day in the process. I had to keep searching for details about their personalities, keep digging into their motivations… It was incredibly taxing.

Finally, though, on day three I accomplished my goal. Brian was an easy sell; he pretended to be savvy, but I had him hooked at word one. He was too desperate to help his sister to even haggle overly much on the terms. It if had been only him, then Coil would have been able to retain his services for nearly nothing. It was a good thing for Brian that everyone in the gang got paid the same amount for their retainer. Alec agreed to sign up on day two, constantly haggling about the amount of money; what he was _really_ worried about, though, was how lucrative the jobs themselves would be. Bitch, AKA Rachel Lindt, had needed a little more persuasion than the others before she saw eye to I with me and the others.

I had to agree to provide a large, empty building where she could house any and all dogs that she came across before she would even begin the real negotiations. I'd also had to promise her that she would have a real say in how our group was run, which seemed incredibly important to her. As everyone was supposed to get their own vote anyway, I had earnestly agreed to her demand, I could tell the jaded canine enhancer barely believed me, but it was enough to stop her from walking out the door yesterday. It was only when I had pointed out that she could simply leave the group at any time with no negative consequences that she finally decided to throw her lot in with us.

That was this morning. Dealing with Bitch's fucked up mentality, which was almost as canine as it was human, had left my head throbbing and my power fatigued to a startling degree. I wasn't _quite_ to the point of a blinding migraine, but if I used my Thinker ability for anything but the most minor of information gathering I would probably find myself laid up for a day or two in a dark room. I resolved to keep a tight reign on my power, and only use it if there was an emergency. I didn't know if I'd be able to do that, though… it always seemed as though there was a good reason to use my powers, or something I'd come across which required that I activated them. It was almost like my power _wanted_ to be used, which was patently ridiculous.

I passed around the first month's retainer to my new teammates, each of them pocketing their two grand. We chatted for a while, getting used to being around one another. Eventually the four of us decided to go out to lunch to celebrate the formation of our group. We had argued about where to go for nearly twenty minutes when Brian finally settled things by announcing that _he_ was buying… but only if we went to Fugly Bobs. Needless to say, we were having hamburgers. Nobody our age turned down free food, at least not without a damn good reason. It was a short walk to the famous east-coast eatery. Where we got there, the four of us stood in line, looking at the delicious pictures on the menu as we waited to order our meals. I could see Rachel out of the corner of my eye, looking around warily. She stuck close to the rest of us, as we were familiar, and therefore more trustworthy than _strangers_. I could tell that she was annoyed at the amount of people in the room, even without using my powers.

Looking around me, I frowned, unsuccessfully trying to suppress the knowledge that I'd witnessed sixteen different health code violations after being in the dining room for only five minutes. That was when I first saw _her_. My heart sped up and my pussy immediately became damp at the mere sight of startlingly gorgeous teenager, who was greedily chowing down on the biggest fucking hamburger I'd ever seen in my life. She was sitting next to a man who looked to be in his early thirties. They shared a slight resemblance, but they were a little too close in age to be father and daughter, unless he had been a young teenager when the girl was born. Maybe her older brother? I suppressed a wince as my power tried to activate; I tamped it down, forcing it into the background. I was extremely disappointed that I had overused my ability to such a ludicrous degree… I hungered to know more about the beautiful brunette. As had happened before whenever I was particularly attracted to someone, I revisited my old hope. 'Is _she_ good enough for my power to accept?' I wondered. Absent the use of my power, and the world being what it is, I would probably never see her again to find out. I pushed the sadness and regret that this line of thought had created into a little ball, and stuffed it deep, down inside of me to join the other's I placed there lately. I returned to staring at the girl who had attracted my attentions like a moth to a candle flame.

My eyes bored into this vision of loveliness as I watched the teenage girl's beautiful, mathematically perfect features stare back at me. I winced; my power had activated on it's own, to let me know that her face was _perfectly_ symmetrical. I had a slight headache now, but I couldn't help letting a trickle of information flow into me now that I'd already started using my Thinker ability; just enough to get some idea of who this extremely attractive girl was, and what she was all about. I suppressed a frown, unhappy with the certainty that soon the thought of doing anything vaguely sexual with her would be ruined by whatever fucked up details my power would show me about her. It had happened every single time I'd tried to find someone to go out on a date with, someone to have sex with, that at this point it felt inevitable. My power started giving me some _really weird_ information… and then the world shifted.

I vaguely recall my power screeching something incoherent at me as my mind filled up with ridiculous nonsense that I could barely understand. Right away I felt tired, extremely so, and my brain _ached_ like it was being blended into a liquid that would soon leak out of my ears. I turned toward Brian, trying to tell him what was happening, that I was _dying_ , but I just couldn't make the words come together correctly. "Br- _uhh_! Br- _uuh-uuh_ -ian!" I stuttered out, my voice shrill from the panic that enveloped me. My knees wobbled, and just like that I was no longer able to support my own weight. As my legs buckled, I clawed at my new teammate's chest and shoulder desperately, trying to grab on, but I couldn't make my hands work correctly.

I fell backward, striking first my shoulder and then my head on the cold tile floor of the greasy burger joint that I had been preparing to force myself to eat in, despite its slovenly state. I _knew_ that I was dying, that this was the last place I would ever see on earth. My power continued to pour random numbers and symbols into the forefront of my brain, exacerbating the injuries that were swiftly killing me. The information made _no sense_ … it was almost like my power was panicking, desperately jabbering away like a frightened child who thinks there are monsters under her bed. The random letters and numbers flashed through my mind over and over as I lay there spasming on the stained tile floor.

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

'What a shiity way to die,' I thought. I blinked my watery eyes and prepared to meet my end.

I felt coldness press in on me, my vision blurring as I prepared to find out the answer to the greatest mystery in all of human existence. Tears welled up in my eyes as I silently raged against the injustice of it all, about how unfair it was that I should die when I hadn't even had the taste of a fat cock or a slick little pussy on my tongue for nearly a year now. I wanted to _get laid_ , damnit! Not to die like a schmuck on the floor of a stupid burger joint that I didn't even want eat at in the first place!

I felt Brain at my side, saw the black boy doing his best to comfort me. There was a sad look in his eye, and I could tell that he knew I was dying, even though my power was eerily silent now. Alec was on the phone to 911, but I knew that they wouldn't get here soon enough to matter. Even if the paramedics arrived before I died there was little they would be able to do for a brain injury like the one I undoubtedly had. Unless Panacea happened to walk through the door I was completely fucked… and maybe even then, as I suddenly recalled that she didn't work on brains. If I was religious, then I would started praying right about then. Hell, I actually _did_ start praying, just in case.

'God… _any God_... if you're out there, please listen! If you save me then I promise to do whatever you want me to, for the rest of my life. Please, just help me!' I thought frantically, willing someone, somewhere to answer my frantic plea.

That's when my Guardian Angel flew through the door, here with the express purpose of saving my life. I watched her land by my side and say something reassuring to Brian. And then her hand was lying on me, and suddenly _everything was alright again_. My damaged tissues were repaired, my entire body felt like a million bucks, and even the stupid fucking headache I'd had earlier was gone. I looked into the eyes of the icon of perfection personified that had saved my life. My mouth opened to thank her, and a wave of something indescribable swept through me. I stared into her eyes, and an emotion that I'd never really felt before filled my heart and mind. Something was changing inside of me, and I was becoming somehow _more_ than I had been previously. It was like two puzzle pieces were locking together, to form a coherent whole. It felt _so right_ … but then I felt my parahuman ability react to it, and once again a searing bolt of agony swept through my head as it was filled with more of the incomprehensible shit that led to my previous attack.

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

My power engaged, trying to make sense of The Angel… Trying to make sense of whatever had just happened in my head, or heart, or _soul_ to make me feel so complete, to somehow permanently tie the very essence of my being to this beautiful creature's. Whatever it was, it had nearly killed me again in the process, when my power strenuously objected to it. I shook as my power flared once more, and _something else_ in my traitorous head burst, causing a wave of indescribable agony to course through my body. Any thoughts I had at that time were simply wiped away, as I fought to keep from blacking out from the pain. I felt the warmth of my Angel's healing power again, but stronger this time… _much_ stronger than before. My entire body thrummed with her power, golden light penetrating my very soul as she worked to fix me a second time.

As the Angel healed me, I felt it as something amazing happened. I had a dozen tiny, silent orgasms as all of the nerves in my body tingled with the soothing electricity my Angel was flooding me with. I shuddered under my breath as my pussy juiced all over, leaving my panties and jeans soaked through. I felt my eyes forced closed by the energy coursing through me, as my brain and body were altered and somehow _made better_ than they had been before. I should have been scared; worried beyond belief that my flesh was being shaped in strange and new ways that I had never known possible. But I wasn't. For some crazy reason I intrinsically trusted the beautifully inhuman creature who was helping me. It was an extension of the feeling that I'd had a moment before, when my power flipped out.

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Put quite simply, _I was hers_. She could do whatever she wished with me, and it would be right. Even my power no seemed to have been altered somehow, as it spat out another burst of jumbled, garbled nonsense before suddenly going quiet, fading into the background in a way that it never had before since I'd first triggered. I could tell that it would sit there quinscenent now, until I called on it. A smile blossomed on my face as my I realized that this wonderful, amazing creature had not only healed my injury; she had also somehow pushed my past my boundaries, and made me greater than I could ever have become on my own. I silently vowed to my savior that _all of me_ would be hers, in whatever way she wished, forever.

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My thoughts started moving faster, and my _everything_ became more sensitive and responsive as I was changed, until I was something more than I had been. With an inaudible 'snap', something in my brain was altered, and my power, the thing that had defined my life for over a year, was suddenly _different_. Oh, I could use it the same way I had been up until now, but now it was greater than it had been, more all encompassing. And, most importantly, _it didn't hurt to use it_. I somehow knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that using my Thinker ability would never, ever hurt me again, either.

I was helped to my feet by the wonderful, amazing, gorgeous, benevolent woman who had healed me and transformed me into something better than I had ever dreamed I could be. I stared at her with reverence, my gaze filled with the unrestrained love and sexual desire that I felt for her in that moment. My eyes shined with devotion; it felt natural that I should do anything that my Angel wished. If she had asked me to jump into a fire or to kill someone in that moment... then I think that I might have done it. The fact that I would murder for her was startling to me, but it didn't alarm me at all. I was hers, and my existence was now devoted to allowing her desires to be made manifest. I knew deep down that I had _chosen_ this path, that it had not been forced upon me… and that made all the difference.

I studied the eight foot tall angel, complete with flaming sword on her hip. My Thinker powers worked on her now for some reason. When I focused on the red-haired, winged woman my power didn't give me so much as a tingle, let alone the terrible agony they'd just put me through previously. Even with my powers turned on her form, I could find no fault with the sweet Angel of Mercy who had delivered me from death. When I thought of giving myself to her physically, of taking her as a lover, for once I _wasn't_ treated to a list of her faults and disgusting habits. My power whispered to me that she was perfect, beautiful, and the most important being in existence. It was enough to make me weak in the knees. My power was nice enough to inform me that the porcelain Angel found _me_ attractive as well, which soothed the growing worry I had felt that my feelings for her would not be mutual. I didn't just _want_ this woman sexually, it felt like I _needed_ her.

When she tried to pull her hand from my desperate grasp, something inside of me nearly died. Fighting to stop myself from sobbing in desperation, my newly reforged Thinker power worked fervently to find a way to keep her from leaving me… or maybe, I could go with her. A desperate, dangerous plan coalesced in seconds, my power and heavily boosted brain concocting it almost on their own, with only the least bit of input from my conscious mind. My mind and power were just so _responsive_ , now.

I found my body moving on it's own, blocking my face from being seen by anyone in the room, as well as their various recording devices. I was able to calculate the various angles and account for reflective surfaces on the fly as I moved, which is definitely _not_ something I had previously been capable of. My power also informed me that the blinding speed I had moved with was only a tiny fraction of the speed I would now be able to achieve. "I'm being held captive," I whispered to her, my voice nearly silent. "Please help me. Take me with you." I used the most plaintive tone that I was capable of, and my face was the very picture of desperation. I felt awful for _acting_ , instead of simply being myself for my Angel, but unless I convinced her in the brief window of time before she left Fugly Bob's, then this might well be the last time I ever saw her. I _could not_ let that happen.

To my undying delight she believed me, appearing to understand that I was telling the truth as I spoke. Before I knew it she had fed Brian some lie or other, and I was being held in her incredibly strong arms. I nearly came again when I felt Ariel's hand on my backside, gently squeezing and massaging my firm little bubble butt as she held my trembling body firmly against her armored chest. I held her hand tightly and bit my lip, fighting not to orgasm simply from her touch. I was overwhelmed, a little bit scared… and desperately horny. I was still reeling from the near death experience and the changes that had been made to my body, and my Thinker power was feeding me more data that I knew what to do with, as it could be left on _constantly_ now without any negative effects at all. I found myself simultaneously joyful to have escaped my captivity so quickly and terrified that I would once more be captured by Coil, somehow. In short, I was a mess.

Exploring my tumultuous feelings with my responsive new mind, I was reassured to find that the love I'd spontaneously developed for my angelic savior was still shining deep inside of me; the golden light in my soul which bound me to her throbbing in time with my heartbeat. I had been wondering since the beginning if I was being mastered by her, but my upgraded power quickly put the kibosh on that idea. I could definitely still act against her, if I needed to… I just didn't _want_ to. I felt a deep seated _need_ to be of service to her… to _worship_ her. I shuddered at the thought of lavishing love and adoration onto the winged woman as I kneeled before her and did my best to please her with my mouth. I had never played around with dominance and M&S stuff before, but it definitely seemed to be a kink that I possessed now. Would she like that? My power suddenly sent me a long stream of information on the Angel who was holding me in her arms. It told me that she would like it _very much_.

Body is much more responsive than a human's. Cannot feel pain. Things that would normally cause pain either produce a mild tingling sensation or overwhelming pleasure. Ariel is not human. She's _more_ than human. _Better_ than human. She is incredibly pent up, and needs a massive sexual release _badly_.

My power _also_ helpfully informed me that Ariel _wasn't actually_ a human being. I ignored that, of course… my power had been wrong before, usually when I fed it the wrong information. If my Guardian Angel wasn't a human then what _was she_ , anyway... chopped liver? Stupid power. Even though it was working much better now, my parahuman ability _had_ just nearly killed me... it would probably be a while before I would trust it like I had previously. Oh, I would still use my powers, of course; I would just need to take what they told me with a grain of salt. My power quit feeding me data for a second when I thought about its unreliability, as if in protest, before starting up again. 'No, Lisa,' I told myself sternly, 'your power most definitely _did not_ just get offended when you indicated that you no longer trust it completely.'

Before I knew it, the beautiful porcelain Angel who had saved my life was flying us into the air,and then _phasing_ directly through the ceiling of Fugly Bob's. We soared through the clear blue sky at a startling speed, headed toward a tall building that my power told me had long since been abandoned due to the declining need for professional offices and the like in Brockton Bay. We phased through solid matter once again, this time through the wall of the office building.

We were on the top floor of the building, in a large, open space that had at one time housed over a dozen suites and office spaces. There were a few structural walls here and there, but nearly the entire top floor was empty, open space due to the modular walls, which had been used to separate out the different office spaces, having been long since removed. Surprisingly the space was fairly neat and tidy, its cleanliness only marred by some dust here and there, and stacks of old furniture. There were a plethora of old desks and office chairs, outdated remnants of the 90's and early 00's. Most of the old office desks had been stacked against one of the walls, but there were a half dozen which were scattered here and there haphazardly. One of the desks had a chair pulled up to it, and I noticed that the dust around that area was disturbed.

We made ourselves comfortable, with my Angel leaning against a wall and me standing beside her. We talked for a little bit, and I somehow managed to put my foot in my stupid mouth when my power figured out that she was using some kind of power or technology to disguise herself, probably due to how scared and nervous I felt. My mind kept looping, the same worry repeating over and over in my head; I was terrified that the woman that I inexplicably felt as though I belonged to would send me away. The idea of never seeing her again was terrifying to me, and I couldn't remove it from my mind. Ariel had saved my life, given me my freedom; she was the first person in _over a_ _year_ that I was able to think about sexually without my power causing me to recoil in disgust. My poor, neglected pussy had throbbed powerfully every time she looked at me, every time that I was able to touch that smooth, beautiful alabaster skin.

My desperate need for her body was only overshadowed by my fear of rejection, of losing her before I'd ever even had her. And as I was standing there near the object of my desire, I learned that Ariel _wasn't_ actually a particularly fortunate Case 53, or a changer, or even an adult woman at all. She was a teenage girl just like me, who was somehow _even more_ gorgeous and sexy to my hungry eyes in her true form. This beautiful brunette Goddess, Taylor Hebert, was even more desirable than her angelic counterpart had been, and my power was equally silent when it came to her flaws and deficiencies. Quite the opposite, in fact; my power kept telling me that she was _perfect_ , whatever that meant, and that it was my job to care for her and protect her in every way possible. It again insisted that she wasn't human, but again I tuned that out, having no want or need for that level of ridiculousness in the state that I was in.

Taylor Hebert is perfect. No flaws or mortal frailties. She's worried that you know too much about her powers and identity. Actively considering somehow eliminating you as a threat. Doesn't _want_ to harm you but will if she feels she has to. Taylor Hebert isn't human; _beyond_ human. Perfect. She's also extremely horny and frustrated. She finds you _extremely_ attractive. Taylor wants to fuck you _badly_. Subconscious desire to have several nasty, dirty sexual acts performed on her. Recently had a store of knowledge containing information about every existent sexual fetish downloaded directly into her mind.

My brain slowly rebooted while I digest the information my power has given me. I was pulling information more easily that I ever had before, learning things that I shouldn't have been able to from the amount of information I had taken in. Taylor was clearly beautiful, flawless even, but _not human_? What does that even mean? Regardless of whether or not it's true, I still feel the same way about her. It's fucking crazy, and I should probably be running away screaming, but I still want to make hard love to this girl, and the fact that she evidently has some pretty hardcore sexual fetishes only enhances my desire for her. It's a way that I can serve her, something I can do for her that will make her want to keep me by her side forever. At this point I'm fully committed to becoming whatever this girl wants me to be… but I'd really prefer that whatever role she wants me in involves copious amount of sex.

I quickly make sure that the new center of my universe understands that I mean her no harm. Just the opposite, in fact. "Woah, woah, no need to do anything drastic!" I exclaimed, holding up my hands in surrender. 'Please,' my eyes implore her, 'I would _never_ do anything to hurt you. Not in a million years.' The thought of doing anything that would lead to the slightest harm to my most precious person leaves me feeling physically ill. The emotion is so strong that I'm convinced that I would die before giving her a papercut. I assure her up and down that I mean no threat to her, and explain that sometimes my fat mouth causes me problems by running away with itself. Thankfully, my Angel understands. After a moment where she studies me intently, she forgives me, and asks me for more information my situation.

I spill my guts about myself, the Undersides, Coil… _everything_. I'd basically gifted my soul to this enormously attractive girl, so a little thing like letting her in on all my secrets was trivial at this point. I'm certain by this point that Taylor is unaware of the bond we share, and that it wasn't something that she caused or even knew about. My power informs me that the connection is definitely a two way street, but that the amount of energy and information flowing from me to her is tiny compared to the huge quantities of power that she already possesses. The trickle of energy and data that's being sent from me to her would be practically undetectable she actively went looking for it. The only reason that I haven't told her about the connection is that I'm afraid that she'll try to remove it. My power assures me that she can't actually get rid of it, not unless I do something to betray her at least, but I don't want to chance losing the wonderful feeling of her golden light that's inside of me now. Just the thought of having the tiny spark of her essence removed from my core nearly causes me to break down crying. I master myself, and force my attention back on the world around me. I'm about to finished telling Taylor everything, and I need to find out if she has any questions, or if she needs more information about something I've said.

I'm crying though, now, and because of my distress I'm doing a really shitty job of serving her needs. Admitting to Taylor my imprisonment and status as a forced villain dredged up all of the emotions associated with my recent past... and it _hurt_. It felt doubly bad to have to explain my failings to the girl who had become the most important person in the world to me in the last twenty minutes. I looked up at Taylor's big, honey brown eyes, my own beginning to water. She gave me a small smile, which I returned shyly. I wiped away a tear, and wondered briefly if I was still going to cry. I was, and I did; just a little bit, though. I tried to tell her Taylor how amazing she was, how much I appreciated what she had done for me. It fell flat, because my power kept warning me off when I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, and that she was now my everything.

Looking back, it was amazing that I didn't scare her off during the first five minutes we were alone together. Thankfully, I managed keep my lips sealed when it came to the things that I knew would frighten or confuse her. Or the ones that would make her think she was mastering me. She _wasn't_ , by the way… My power kept telling me that I had _voluntarily_ given myself to her, though I couldn't quite remember how… I guess it was during the time I was experiencing all those brain aneurysms. That would definitely explain it. One of Taylor's hot buttons was a nearly rabid aversion to taking away people's free will, so I needed to steer clear of making her think she was doing that to me… at all costs.

When she took my trembling body into her arms, I knew that I would only be able to restrain myself for so long. Being around this girl, who was somehow even younger and less experienced than me, was incredibly arousing… I could feel my body responding to alluring presence, my dormant sexuality awakening under the influence of her incredibly erotic form. Taylor was a tall, thin girl with very large breasts and a thin waist that flared out into a delicious, jiggly bubble butt. As I snuck glances and lightly touched her with my small, soft hands, warm in her embrace, I rapidly became drunk on her unfocused, virgin sexuality. My power was practically screaming at me that my Angel wanted me to fuck her, that she needed me to provide her with as much sexual pleasure as I was capable of giving. It was incredibly tough to ignore it, to hold myself back from doing something that I _already_ wanted to do so very badly.

Taylor needs sex. Is slowly becoming more erratic in her behaviors from repressing her desires and the new physical needs of her body. She wants you to fuck needs to orgasm as hard and as long as possible to relieve her built up stress and to satisfy her physiology. Wants you to be rough with her, to dominate her. She's shy and inexperienced. Needs you to make the first move. You know you want to.

I almost whimpered at the last piece of 'information' that my power shared with me… I already fucking _knew_ that I wanted to have sex with Taylor, goddamnit it! I held out as long as I could, rubbing my thighs together to gently stimulate my weeping pussy as I answered Taylor's questions about the Undersiders, explaining their role in my story. I kept myself as still as possible in her arms, forcing my body not to betray my intense, overwhelming attraction for the brunette teen's delicious body as we had a discussed the terrible, incredibly immoral system that was in place for dealing with underage parahumans like ourselves if they made even the slightest mistake. The fire in her eyes as she declared that she was going to bring down the man that had made the last few weeks of my life a living hell cemented the undying adoration I held for this incredible heroine.

I couldn't help but question her impulsive announcement, but I knew that she wasn't going to back down. Impulsively, I followed a strong prompt given to me by my power to lie to Taylor, something that made me feel sick the moment I did so. I told her that I wasn't able to read her, when in fact I was able to read her better than I'd ever read anyone before. I figured out the reason for the deception; to further the illusion that I _wasn't_ already her loyal servant. Sometime soon, my power informed me, something would take place that Taylor needed to be absolutely sure I was doing of my own free will. If she suspected that she was somehow mastering me during whatever this event was, then it would hurt her very badly, and our short association would likely either end, or be in jeopardy as a result. I was a little leery of trusting my reforged power to this extent, but I would rather lie to her than to hurt her, as long as the lie itself was relatively benign.

In seconds, I was feeling even worse, as the curly haired sophomore decided to trust me enough to tell me her real identity. I avoided showing her how distressed I was, but it was a close thing. Only her comforting arm, still encircling me allowed me to fend off another set of tears. God, when had I become such a crybaby?

When I felt the most beautiful girl on earth lean deeper into our embrace after introducing herself, my angst over lying to her was forgotten. The fifteen year old's soft, white hand trailed over my back gently as she wrapped both arms around me, sent electric shivers down my ultra-conductive spine, igniting the fire in my groin. When her face came so close to my own that I could see my reflection in her eyes, there was simply too much temptation present for my weakened willpower to resist.

Leaping on the startled teen like a predator lying in wait, I pressed my lips against hers. I put all of the experience I'd gained as a formed slut to use, my lips sucking and nibbling on Taylor's as she moaned into my mouth. When opened her mouth in surprise I introduced her to my tongue, wiggling it against hers and running it softly over her thick, tender lisp. I was definitely being a little aggressive, which was not the usual when dealing with a virgin… but according to the information supplied by my power this was _exactly_ what the tall, stacked girl needed. My pussy throbbed and every nerve in my body thrummed with pleasure as I continued to kiss the younger teen who I had wrapped myself around. I squealed into Taylor's mouth and nearly came when she grabbed my ass in both of her hands and began enthusiastically kissing me back. The brunette's knee pressed hard against my sobbing cunt, and _that_ caused me to lose it.

Howling from the first orgasm that had been given to me by another human being in over a year, I threw my head back, my long blond hair flying all over. I shuddered under the searing waves of ecstasy that rolled over my insanely sensitive body, continuing to shove my sex against the brunette cape's kneecap. Taylor leaned down, her tall body shadowing my own as her mouth locked onto the side of my neck. I whimpered and moaned as my orgasm intensified exponentially under her oral attack, the teenager's full lips and strong tongue working over the ultra sensitive flesh of my neck and shoulder, her teeth nipping at my soft skin gloriously as I convulsed in ecstasy. I came harder from dry humping this beautiful girl's leg than I had ever cum from having a big dick up inside of me or a talented mouth sucking and tonguing my sweet little snatch, cementing my desire to tie myself to the girl who had saved me, to do whatever I could to make her want to keep me forever.

We sank to the ground, still leaning against each other. Taylor kept planting delicious kisses on my neck and jaw, rekindling my desire nearly before the epic cum I'd just experienced had even fully played out. I tangled my hands in her long, silky hair and once more we were locked in a searing, million degree makeout session. Our tongues slid over each other and intertwined in the sexiest lesbian lip lock that I had ever shared with another girl. My entire body felt hot, and excitement flowed through my veins like a drug. The soft, feminine scent of Taylor's arousal filled my nostrils, making me shudder at how delicious it smelled. I needed to give her more pleasure, to make her cum as hard as possible. I nearly paused as my power whispered into my mind about the kinky, sexually deviant things that my Angel desired, but I didn't pause; if _she_ wanted me to do it then I would. For _her_ , I would do nearly anything.

I don't know which of us started it, but without warning we began tearing each other's clothing off as fast as we could. I saw Taylor hook a finger in the band of my panties and pull, the thin, silky undergarment coming apart under the force of her lust. When her shirt came off, my eyes couldn't help but gravitate toward the gorgeous melons that the brunette goddess had somehow been concealing under the loose-cut top. I drank in the appearance of her gorgeous, perfect breasts, my power noting that there was not a single flaw in sight. Taylor's big, fat boobs were completely symmetrical, and they looked absolutely _huge_ on her young thin frame. My mouth began to water as I stared, and before I knew it I was on her again, pushing the surprised girl backward as I locked my lips around one of her big, pink nipples.

Taylor's tits were _delicious_. I licked and flicked, sucked and bit, savaging her enormous mounds the way that I knew she secretly desired as abject lust bubbled up from deep inside of me. For once my stupid power was actually helping me out when it came to sex, feeding me all kinds of numbers and drawing some startling conclusions as I worked to pleasure my new lover, and to sate my own hunger for her stupendously amazing rack. I swiftly realized that nothing I was doing was stressing Taylor's skin, not even in the slightest. The little bites I had been giving her were only causing her further arousal, not even so much as a tooth mark or spot of reddened skin being made as I nipped gently at her beautiful flesh.

Superhuman durability. Tensile strength of entire surface of body is higher than carbon nanotubes. Elasticity higher than spring steel. Amount of pleasure felt in erogenous zones increases exponentially as the amount of force is increased. Wants you to suck and bite her breasts as hard as you can. Secretly wants to lactate, and wants you to drink her breast milk. Wants to be treated like bad girl and a slut. Unaware that she is using her powers to modify her own body so that she can carry out these subconscious desires. Being as rough as possible will make her come with maximum force and duration.

I increased the intensity of my breast worship, beginning to slap her boobs and bite down harder than I had been doing, but still well within the realms of normal, if rough, sexplay. Taylor ate it up, squealing and juicing all over the place, making me grin around the mouthful of nipple and boob I had in my mouth. The increased force I was using was _still_ not causing her body any issues, and since it made her feel so good, I kicked it up a notch. Or ten. I knew that she could take it, and the fierce, raging desire inside of me demanded that I do everything I could to please my new lover. It wasn't what I was used to, but it appeared to be exactly what my new lover needed.

I sucked and bit frantically, working on her long nipples with all the force I could muster. She was so resilient that my jaw started to become sore. The curvy teenager underneath me gasped and moaned at this treatment, so I took both of her tits into my mouth at once and shook my head back and forth, causing her big soft melons to jiggle from side to side. The roundness and weight of the fifteen year old's enormous breasts seemed to increase as I played with them, causing her nearly unbearable pleasure as pressure seemed to build up inside of them. Taylor seemed to go _crazy_ at this, a high pitched noise coming from her throat, and I could actually feel her boobs swelling now, growing fatter and more turgid as I continued to bite and suck on them.

Doing these depraved things to the sweet, wonderful girl who had saved me from both death, and a fate worse than it, was turning me on immensely. My puffy, soaking wet cunt was drooling all over my lover's legs as I furiously mouth fucked her titties, my tiny twat clenching open and closed on nothing from the advanced state of arousal I was in. I rubbing my burning hot snatch on Taylor's leg again, really grinding the dripping mound against her smooth, sexy body. Suddenly, I felt Taylor's nipples swell up enormously, actually forcing my teeth apart a bit as they became larger and puffier. I rapidly flicked my small pink tongue against her nubs, slathering them with saliva as I eagerly waited for what I knew was coming.

The points on each of Taylor's soft, delicious tits lengthened and thickened in between my lips and then exploded, filling my mouth with a thick, creamy substance that I quickly identified as breast milk. I swallowed the mouthful that my lover had given me, humming in pleasure at the sweet, delicious taste that inundated my tastebuds. Hungry for more of the yummy stuff that the thoughtful little sweetheart was feeding me, I sealed my mouth over her nipples and eased up with my teeth a bit, creating a tight vacuum seal so that I wouldn't miss a drop of the thick, wonderful cream that she was spewing. The young teen started wailing like she was being tortured as her mounds shook and sprayed, another huge wave of thick, rich cream squirting powerfully into my mouth. One of the streams hitting the back of my throat; I eagerly swallowed it down, my crotch sparking with pleasure as I serviced the girl who now owned me.

"Mmmmm…!" I hummed, swirling the mouthful of cream around in my mouth before greedily consuming it. A loud gulping sound echoed through the room as I swallowed, and rivulets of breastmilk escaped from my mouth to run down my chin and neck. I have no idea what normal mother's milk was supposed to taste like, but I strongly suspected that it wasn't _this_. The cream squirting forcefully from Taylor's huge knockers was thicker than most of the jizz I'd eaten, back was I was the school bicycle in Hartford. It was also incredibly sweet, tasting more like a vanilla milkshake than regular milk. It also had a similar texture to the sips of heavy whipping cream I'd snuck whenever my grandmother was preparing homemade desserts. I was well and truly hooked; if Taylor ever wanted me to nurse her tits to another orgasm again, then I would be an eager and willing participant.

There was something else about Taylor's milk as well, something that I couldn't put my finger on… It's sounds crazy, but it was almost as if the thick, creamy stuff was making me feel more energetic as I ate it, suffusing my body with a warm, happy glow that radiated out from my rapidly filling tummy. Sucking down the rich, delicious cream was also increasing my arousal like mad and causing me to edge ever closer to another orgasm. I realized that I _loved_ doing this for her, taking a part of this amazing, gorgeous person into myself and making it a part of me while giving her enormous amount of pleasure in the process. Whatever way she wanted me was fine; I would be happy to service my Angel's body in any lewd, disgusting way that she wanted it.

I could feel that there was a huge amount of milk still in the stacked teenager's tits, so I jammed my hands into the sides of her tits as hard as I could, sinking my slim, strong fingers into her huge breasts until I could barely see my wrists. Taylor squealed, and an especially big blast of warm, creamy goodness flooded my mouth, nearly making me choke. A large portion of the flood spilled from my still sealed mouth, and a little trickle of milk poured from my nostrils, running down my face and onto her tits that had generated it. I snorted to clear the thick cream out of my nose and then began squeezing as hard as I could, roughly massaging the deepest, most tender parts of the large pair of breasts I was sucking on. My power told me that this would make her feel even _better_ , and would prolong the impossible orgasm that she was experiencing. I quickly amended that though; with parahuman powers _anything_ was possible, it looked like. I'd never heard of someone orgasming in _their tits_ before, but here it was happening… and I had even helped to cause it!

I nearly choked again as the thick jets of cream being squirted into my sucking mouth increased in intensity and volume. Taylor moaned again, her breasts making loud sloshing and gurgling sounds as their milk production doubled under the onslaught. I moaned around her saliva covered nipples, humping and grinding my crotch against my lover as my own orgasm smashed through me. My hot juices flowed over the brow haired girl's legs as I fucked against her, grinding my poor, swollen clitoris against Taylor's shin roughly. I lifted my head up as I came, arching my back. The nipples still stuck in my mouth caused my lesbian lover's pendulous breasts to be pulled up high into the air as I rose up, stretching them and making them wobble back and forth. I dug my hands into them even harder, using my body weight to massage them with as much force as I possessed. Taylor's eyes rolled into the back of her head under this new assault; seeing her experience new heights of pleasure intensified my own cum. My toes curled as I rubbed my sticky, dripping pulsating pussy back and forth on the gorgeous brunette's leg.

I sighed around my mouthful of milk spewing nipples as my orgasm began to ebb. When I lowered my body from its raised position, I was treated to the sight of Taylor's small, virgin pussy literally gushing girl cum, hot jets of clear, slippery female jizz squirting out of her with nearly as much force as the milk discharging from deep inside her fat tits. I pulled my hand from her right tit, while the other one continued to strongly clench, digging into the sweet tissues of her other breast to help her express as much milk and experience as much pleasure as possible. I moved my free hand down her body, thrilling at the soft, silky feel of my new lover's skin. I took a few seconds to examine her violently orgasming pussy; it was just a gorgeous as the rest of her, nearly inhuman in its beauty and symmetry. Her opening was so small that I was worried about hurting my young lover for a moment, before remembering her incredible Brute durability... and the way that Taylor seemed to experience intense, neatly mind bending pleasure from things that would cause other people serious pain or discomfort.

Continuing to suck jet after jet of rich cream from Taylor's constantly spewing boobs, I squeezed the first three fingers of my hand together tightly and then lined them up at the tiny entrance to the high school sophomore's small, virgin pussy. My power continued to chatter away, instructing me to give it to her as hard as I could. I slammed my sticky digits into Taylor's tiny, millimeter wide opening just as hard as I could, pushing them in all the way up inside of her in one long, powerful motion. It was a good thing that I was holding onto her tit so tightly, because when I fucked my fingers into her, the sobbing, moaning sophomore thrust her hips up at me so hard that she nearly bucked me off. She continued to thrust her crotch up and down wildly as I fingerfucked her hard, so I moved my legs apart, settling my knees on the floor on either side of her until I was steady.

When I was no longer in danger of falling off of the flailing, wildly orgasming girl, I started really going to town on the healing cape's hot, dripping love hole. She was still gushing a physically impossible amount of clear girly goo, so her spasming love tunnel was so well lubricated that I was able to run my fingers in and out of her rapidly despite the incredible snugness of her tiny cunt. I slammed my fingers in and out of her as quickly and forcefully as I could, wincing when her spasming snatch squeezed down on me hard enough that it hurt. In retaliation, I jammed another finger into her buttery little snatch, fucking the better part of my hand in and out of her creaming love hole just as hard as I could. Taylor continued to thrust back up at me furiously as she whimpered and spasmed in bliss, mindless rutting against me as she experienced the world's longest orgasm. She buried her hands in my straight blonde hair, tugging at my locks gently as I continued to suck huge gouts of cream from deep inside of her spasming titties and finger her sopping wet hole. My power helpfully told me that her body was experiencing two different kinds of orgasms at once, and that there was enough neural energy devoted to shooting pleasure impulses through her brain that it would have killed a dozen normal girls by now. I could only wonder what the incredible level of pleasure Taylor was under felt like as even I, with all the upgrades she had given me, would not have survived an orgasm like the one I was causing the hot teen to shudder and squeal her way through.

The answer is literally unknowable. Humans are not meant to experience pleasure like that… _Cannot_ experience pleasure like that. She is not human; _better_ than human. _More_. Above you. Ascendant. Taylor Hebert is a literal Goddess, and you are her first acolyte. Be a good little slave, and continue worshipping your Goddess in the manner that She has chosen for you.

I blinked at my power's announcement, my eyes widening. My muscles tensed a bit, and I felt shocked, but I didn't let a little thing like an existential crisis prevent me from giving my beautiful... _Goddess_?...what She was due. I kept working Her body lovingly as I searched my feelings for the answer. But I already _knew it_ to be true. The Girl who had saved me, The One who had appeared to me in the form of a literal Angel… wasn't a human being at all. Oh, I was _completely_ certain that She _had_ started off as a human, and not too long ago at that. But by some means, She had ascended to something beyond even the mightiest of parahumans, to a level reserved for actual Deities. Taylor Hebert was an actual Goddess… and I had willingly traded my immortal soul to Her in exchange for my own life. I could remember as clear as day now, lying on the floor of the burger joint as everything I was or could eventually be was torn from me as I died. I had begged a God I didn't believe in, any God out there to spare my life, promising everything I was capable of giving in return for that one thing. She had been planning to heal me anyway, but that didn't matter; I had proposed the contract, and she had fulfilled it. After that I was Hers mind, body, and soul. And I would belong to Her for the rest of time, from now unto eternity.

I understood the bond that connected Taylor and I, now. It was a way for Her to gather power, to increase to potency of Her Divinity. A single person such as me, even one who had given their soul to Her, only provided Her with the equivalent of a few drops of power a day. But once people realized that there was an actual Goddess walking among them, there would be no end to the people who would begin worshipping Taylor, providing the young Deity with nearly unlimited power. I could envision a scenario where she would eventually be capable of anything, once a Church devoted to Her rose up and spread across the land. The thought of the majesty that was my beloved Goddess being embraced by everyone alive nearly made me cum again, it was so potent.

'I understand my purpose now,' I though, continuing to make love to fuck the Perfect Being under assault by my mouth and fingers. My entire reason for existence is to serve Her, to help Taylor Hebert become the greatest, most powerful Goddess possible. I would do anything and everything She told me to, of course, but I knew what my role in Her organization should be. I would become Her Pope, her chief Acolyte; the person who would broadcast Her Divine presence to the world. I would create a Church dedicated to Her which would be a true reflection of my Goddess's glory, an organization which would persist on this, and all Earths until the end of time. 'I've got a lot of work ahead of me,' I thought as I swallowed another delicious, creamy mouthful of the Divine cream that my Lady was sweet enough to gift me with. I redoubled my efforts to bring the brunette Divinity's body fathomless, untold amount of pleasure, my wrist aching when I began fucking my entire tiny fist up into Her gooey, delicious looking little snatch.

Taylor's eyes rolled up into Her head, and the sheer sexualaity of Her hypersensitive body was nearly enough to get me off again. I moved sideways, lifting my leg up and straddling Her left leg again. Smashed my quivering mound against my Goddess's bent knee again, a sweet burning feeling emerged from my overstimulated clit. I slid back and forth as I kept sucking and fucking the Divine teen orgasming continuously beneath me, setting off another huge orgasm in my tender, overstimulated cunt. Taylor pulled my hair _hard_ , nearly tearing some it out and causing the waves of pleasure welling up from my core to spiral out of control. I nearly drown on Her milk as I came, bright lights dancing in front of my eyes. My breath came out in ragged gasps, and my fourth orgasm in the last hour felt better than the previous three combined, the knowledge that I was fucking an actual Goddess, one who _owned me_ no less, enough to provide my slutty, perverted body with nearly enough pleasure to render me unconscious.

Suddenly, I felt something indescribably beginning to happen in my shuddering, bliss overloaded body. I kept slam-fucking my fingers into my lover and slapping Her nipples with my tongue throughout as I continued to nurse, sucking sweet, delicious milk from Taylor's pale, pink capped titties. The sensations kept building, lengthening and intensifying my nearly transcendent orgasm. I caused my pussy, and oddly enough the area directly above my clit, to fill up with so much raw, visceral joy that I almost passed out again. Somehow I held on, fighting the temptation to fall to the ground, insensate. The pleasure, and now a kind of pressure, grew and grew, the spot right above my vaginal mound starting to ache sweetly. The sore spot felt like my roughly used pussy did to the next day after inviting three or four boys over to and having them take me all at once, all night long. I wondered what was happening; the patch of skin that was aching wasn't even touching anything. My power answered _that_ question for me, raising half a dozen more in the process.

Swelling and abrasion caused by ongoing physiological changes taking place. Internal structures below affected area in flux. New organs forming outer layer of abdominal cavity; external organs, only being grown internally. Outer layer of skin bulging out as organs form. Skin becoming thinner and more elastic so that oversized organs will fit in pouch as they grow. Changes are being made by The Goddess using healing power as a vector and energy source to perform changes, directing them with micro scale telekinesis. Advanced knowledge of medicine and anatomy required to perform changes correctly. Recently had information on every medical technique in existence downloaded into her mind.

My aches and strains, the patches of skin on my knees that I had slightly abraded from too much friction, my overstimulated pussy, and half a dozen microscopic, sex-related aches and pains suddenly started to feel better. All of my minor maladies faded away into nothing in only a second. Any negative physical feelings of any kind were completely eliminated, but the pressure in my lower abdomen only increased. I crested the wave of bliss, the energy Taylor uses to heal and modify organisms shooting through my no-longer aching pussy like lightning, making me groan out my joy into the younger teenager's huge tits as I bit them roughly. The power coursing through my veins reenergized me each second, prolonging my orgasm enormously, giving me the bare hint of a taste of what Taylor had been experiencing for the last half an hour as both her pussy and tits continually came like crazy.

After several minutes my epic cum finally broke, releasing me from it's delicious hold. I felt completely wiped, like I had just spent all day working out at the gym... or getting gangbanged with strapons by the entire junior cheerleading team, like that one time in 9th grade. I shuddered, wondering what kind of insane body Taylor possessed to have been experiencing a greater degree of ecstasy than I was this whole time. My stomach was uncomfortably full after all of the breast milk I'd drunk, but Taylor's cream was just _so good_ … Finally though, I simply couldn't hold any more, and the hot, thick goo began pouring from my mouth as I continued pleasuring my Goddess, licking and chewing on her nipples as they continued to spray. The gooey, sticky milk Taylor's boobs were still spewing flowed out from between my pink lips, running down my chin and pouring all over her gigantic rack. Wasting the delicious treat that She was honoring me with made me feel surprisingly bad, and only the fact that my tummy was already massively overloaded kept me from trying to drink more.

I kept fingering my Angel, _needing_ to make Her feel good, _wanting so badly_ to show the beautiful girl who owned of my soul proof of the love I felt for Her. I was driven, and I wasn't going to break until She did. If my Goddess needed to keep cumming forever, then I would keep finger-fucking Her slick, sexy body until I passed out from exhaustion; keep sucking Her beautiful, oversized titties until my mouth could no longer form a vacuum. I _knew_ that Her body needed the pleasure I was giving it, and badly, like a normal girl needs air; my power was clear on that much, at least.

I needed it, too. I was a sex addict in forced withdrawal, who had been presented with the hottest, most delicious girl that I had ever seen in my life. I was making hard love to a horny, pent up Goddess, a gorgeous, oversexed Angel who was experiencing untold amounts of pleasure _all because of me_. Her oversexed teenage body was creaming like mad and nearly all of the higher functions of Her brain were shut down due to overwhelming bliss because of something that _I_ had done... It was a huge rush that I could bring someone else joy like that, _especially_ someone I was in love with. And there's no question about it; I am madly, desperately in love with Taylor Hebert. I am _Her's_ with every fiber of my being; my soul literally belongs to the brunette teen now. After having been forced to be celibate for so long it our tryst was a godsend, and I was feeling more fulfilled than I ever had before. I was discovering that I would do anything for my lover, even sexually torture her into cumming for a solid half hour while I got off, rubbing my pussy on her as I watched Her sexy, perfect body experience pleasures beyond the purview of mortal man. I did this for my Divine lover because it's what She wants, what She needs... and now that I belong to Taylor Hebert, I'm going to be taking care of as many of Her desires as She will let me.

My thoughts were interrupted when the pressure above my vagina reached it's peak, the huge, mysterious bulge there swelling enormously, where my Goddess was altering my body in some way that she had not deigned to tell me about. I felt the gigantic, football-sized bulge explode violently, splattering my crotch and the tops of my thighs were with a hot, slippery substance that felt like fresh jizz on my skin. I let Taylor's big nipples fall from my mouth and withdrew my fingers from Her still spasming pussy quickly, pulling my body backward to get a look. I cried out in shock, my eyes going wide from the strange sensations taking place in my groin both inside and out. Sitting up straight, I looked down to see just what in the hell had happened to me. I don't begrudge my Goddess her right to do with my body as she pleases, but a head's up would have been nice. I gasped in shock upon seeing the enormous tube of flesh and twin mangoes hanging from my crotch. I gulped; the size and weight of my new penis and testicles was _enormous_. I could _feel_ the muscles and tendons in my groin stretching from the sheer mass of the oversized fuckpole and bloated, stuffed ballsack that Taylor had given me, causing them to ride low and cover up my womanhood. I nearly swooned when I caught a whiff of the musky, powerful male aroma that wafted up from my new endowment. My mouth watered; it had been _so long_ since I'd been able to suck a cock that the sight of _my own prick_ was making me drool. I thought about simply bending my waist and enveloping it with my soft, full lips. I smacked them together, a strand of drool falling from my sticky, cream covered face; I'll bet that my dick would taste _really good_... I wiped the drool from my mouth and turned my head to look at Taylor, who was starting to emerge from the sexual coma that I'd put Her into.

I wondered briefly _why_ the incredibly beautiful Divine Being had needed me to fuck Her the way I'd done… Usually sweet, inexperienced fifteen year old virgins didn't want to be screwed so forcefully, or even to have the razor edge of someone's attention totally focused on them, the way mine had been. Oh, don't get me wrong; I had _adored_ what we'd done together; I was just curious why her subconscious mind had been so intent on me working her body over like she was some kind of nasty, submissive pain-slut. When my power pinged her sexual desires I was getting mostly vanilla desires, with only a little bit of the hardcore fetish stuff that she had wanted showing up here and there. Her main kink seemed to be a desire to get fucked by a beautiful woman or girl with an enormous dick, which is almost definitely the reason I'm not a fully functional hermaphrodite with a dick the size of my lower leg. It didn't _quite_ make sense… I focused my power on her like a laser, intent on getting some answers.

Goddess's sexual desire temporarily sated. Need for mortal worship also fulfilled... for now. Rough, submissive sex counts as a form of worship. Worship must include elements of sacrifice, difficulty, or peril to be effective. Divine Beings require worship from mortals in order to retain or strengthen their Divinity. Worship is a form of sustenance. Taylor Hebert will need to be worshipped regularly or her mood and mental health will degrade in the long term.

'Now isn't _that_ interesting…' I thought. I'd been willing to believe that Taylor is Goddess fairly easily simply because it _felt right_ , like the missing piece of a particularly stubborn puzzle was suddenly set into place. It also made sense; regular parahuman powers just didn't work like hers appeared to. I hadn't seen much of what she could do, not yet, but the little I had experienced appeared to operate on mechanics and principles that that differed massively from other capes' powers. Sure, I imagine quite a bit of Her Divine powers could be mimicked by certain parahumans, but the underlying principles were totally disparate according to my power. It was interesting to note that I could now use my Thinker power to analyze the inner workings of other cape's abilities; that wasn't typical among Thinkers, and definitely not something I was able to do before. Sure, in the past I could get a really good idea of what someone's power could do, what the rules for its use were; things like that… but I didn't have clue one how they actually operated. Now, though, just thinking about Rachel's power, for instance, yielded all kinds of information about the cellular growth that took place to build the enormous sheaths of layered muscle and sensory tissue that encased her dogs. I knew so much about the process now that I could probably _build_ _a device_ that could do something similar to her power. 'Am I a Tinker, now?' I wondered. I didn't _think_ _so_ , that answer didn't quite feel correct. It was more a case of my Thinker powers being expanded so much in both breadth and potency that I could do an OK job of _faking_ a Tinker power. I suddenly wondered how _Taylor's_ powers work... does my Goddess need to use the energy she gets from Worship to power her healing and phasing abilities? Will her powers grow stronger the more people who worship her? My power answered those questions with the ludicrous level of details that I was coming to expect from it after my power-assisted brain surgery.

Currently existent Divine abilities each act as free energy reactors, either fueling themselves as needed when they are used, or slowly creating a charge which fills a reserve that later fuels the ability. New Divine energy is generated ex-nihilo by the act of a mortal creature worshipping a genuine Celestial being. When you worshipped Taylor Divine energy was transferred from you to Her as the worship was taking place. Divine energy accumulates in the God or Goddess, and can be used for various tasks like strengthening the body or enhance existing powers. Accumulating Divine power also _enhances_ a God's Divinity, increasing their dominion when enough has built up. Amount of energy generated by worship today was tiny, nearly insignificant. _Much_ greater quantities of energy required for appreciable growth in power to happen. More followers, disciples, and acolytes needed to create more Divine energy. The amount of energy created by each instance of worship grows logarithmically as the number of people who honor and worship the Divine Being approaches the total population of a given world.

Learning this information only intensified my desire to follow the path I had previously selected. Taylor would need someone like me to become Her high priestess, head acolyte, or whatever She chooses to call me. Who better for the job than an extremely powerful Thinker like me? Speaking of the Girl in question, I ceased the lightning quick thought and power use, returning my full attention to the sticky, cream and pussy cum coated Teenager next to me. I needed to pretend to be at least a little upset about Her giving me a big dick; if I didn't, then She might get suspicious and eventually find out that I had successfully sold my soul to Her. _That_ would open a can of worms that She was definitely not ready for yet. Though it broke my heart, I was going to need to deceive Her for a while, until She was ready to learn the truth about Her abilities. I couldn't let Her do something stupid, like deciding that She didn't need any followers, or trying to give me my soul back. I could already tell, from just the few facts I had learned and put together, that Taylor was eventually going to be orders of magnitude powerful than any human… including parahumans. Earth Bet _needed_ Her to become that strong, so that She can successfully take on threats like the Endbringers and S-Class parahumans. I also really, _really_ don't want to have my bond with brunette Deity broken… it constantly fills me with an echo of Taylor's divinity; feeling the warmth of Her powerful soul is _indescribably_ wonderful. I think that I might even be willing to _kill_ to prevent that from happening. I turned toward my Goddess.

Taylor was staring at me dumbly with a "fucked stupid" expression on Her face. She blinked Her eyes owlishly, looking down at my new addition with incredulity and disbelief written on Her features. I _was_ actually a little concerned about my brand new penis, but I pretend to be much more worried about the huge slab of meat than I actually was, staring at it with shock written on my face. My exceptional mind and Thinker power had already put all of the information relating to the inhumanly large organ I'd grown, in less than a second; Taylor had given me a huge dick, complete with an enormous set of nuts, _completely on accident_. She hadn't even known what She was doing, probably lost in some kind of fantasy involving both a certain attractive blonde teenager-yours truly, natch-with an element of oversized male genitalia thrown in for some reason. Her healing/biomancy power had activated, and whatever naughty fantasy She had been dreaming up while I made Her cum her brains out had simply come to life.

The giant schlong laying on my leg, twitching, was a totally unintended byproduct of the young Goddess's imagination becoming reality, given form due to an accidental activation of Her bullshit Divine powers. My mouth gaped open in shock as I stared at the cock, thick strands of saliva and fat drops of creamy milk dripping from my slightly pointed chin. The liquid proof of our earlier escapades landed on the already soaked and sloppy body of the Goddess below me, further covering it in cream and saliva. I think that I was doing a good job of selling Taylor on my shock; that was probably because a good portion of it was quite real. A girl doesn't simply _get used to_ having a set of brand male genitals... not instantly, anyway.

I could actually _feel_ my new penis, I noted while flexing my kegel muscles. Little tremors of sensation traveled through the slightly plumper organ as I caused it to twitch. I found some new new muscles in my crotch that simply _hadn't existed_ until a moment ago, and then tried clenching them tightly. Both of us blinked as my uncircumcised cock _jumped_ due to whatever I'd just done while playing around with my new anatomy. Taylor gasped as blood surged into my cock, causing it to rapidly begin hardening, growing much longer and thicker as it rapidly became erect. The brunette's face began to turn red as She stared at my prick. The fifteen year old Goddess licked her lips unconsciously as she stared at the thick penis like a hawk, Her breathing beginning to speed up

The Girl I'd been lavishing with otherworldly pleasure until a minute or two ago was beginning to come back to Her senses, now. Her expression began shifting from one of transcendent bliss to one of shock and muted horror, which shone through her growing arousal. At least She hadn't changed me on purpose… things would have been much more difficult for both of us, were that the case. I wasn't one hundred percent sure how I should react at the moment, besides pretending that I was a bit more worried than I really was. I'm sure that Taylor would be quite suspicious to learn just how nonchalant I actually felt about Her changing my body. The only reason I was concerned at all was due to magnitude of the change, and the various affects that it promised to have on my day to day life. It should have felt like a violation, but I had a feeling that after Taylor saved my life, rebuilt my body, and claimed my immortal soul in the bargain, there was little to nothing that the beautiful Goddess could do to me that I could truly become angry about… not enough to actually matter, anyway. It was extremely strange, and the amount I suddenly trusted and loved Her _definitely_ should have been mind-bendingly horrifying... but in a very real sense, Taylor Hebert _owned_ me, now. I was _Her's_ , completely and utterly... and I was more than OK with that. It was even safe to say that I _loved_ the fact that She owned me; just thinking about it sent pleasant shivers down my spine and ignited a warm feeling in my chest.

It was funny, really. I had woken up this morning a slave, and this evening I would go to sleep a free woman… _physically_ free, that is. But as sure as the sun rises, my soul now belonged to someone other than myself. The Archangel Ariel, Taylor Hebert; a literal Goddess. My _Mistress_ , my _Goddess_ , my _Owner…_ it felt _**so right**_ to admit that to myself over and over again… to think about the fact that I was completely _Her's_. She could command me to the ends of the earth, and I would happily die to provide Her with whatever She needed from me. I wouldn't necessarily do everything that She _told_ me to do (things that didn't make any sense or that might harm Her were off the table unless She was _very_ firm about it), as I wasn't a mindless automaton. What I _would do_ was nothing short of my level best to accomplish _anything_ that She needed me to; to fulfill any and all of Her desires that I possibly could. It was a startling revelation and my entire worldview had changed… and that I was so goddamn happy about that fact that I felt like beaming and shouting about my new love from the rooftops.

And then, my mind returned to the cock. I didn't really _mind_ it… if my _Mistress_ -I shivered-wanted to change my body, then who was I to tell Her 'no'? But I could tell that Taylor hadn't meant to do it, and that She was regretting whatever loss of control had led to this unexpected result. If I told Her that I was willing to become anything that She wanted me to be, that I didn't mind if She rebuilt my body in any way that She desired... I was fairly certain that it would horrify Her. So I wasn't going to do that. I would have to try hard not to reveal to my Goddess that I was Her's to do with as She wished; not quite yet. I was a proud, strong willed girl with an extremely strong Thinker power, and now minor Mover and Brute ratings, thanks to Taylor's gifts. I would show her my real personality, and treat Her like I would any other person in this situation. I would have to try hard not to show the wonderful, sexy Divine how much I truly love Her… at least not for now. I planned to slowly introduce Her to the revelations about Her true being that my power keeps providing, easing the beautiful young Girl into them slowly over time. Eventually She will be ready to learn the truth about _everything_ , and I'll happily share it with Her. It's going to be tough deceiving the Goddess that I love more than life itself, but I think I'll be able to manage it. I'm doing it for _Her_ , after all.

I would need to continue playing it cool for now, so that I don't scare Her off. Something within me needs Her so badly that I think I might die if She send me away. I'll have to let Taylor get used to the fact that I belong to her little by little instead of beating Her over the head with it. This means, as distasteful as it is, I'm going to need to pretend to be at least a little upset at Her for what She did to my body a moment ago. Oh, I'm not going to scream or rant, and I'm planning to let Her convince me that I like my new set of male genitals soon enough. Obviously, giving me a big fat penis is something that Taylor _really_ wanted to happen, or else the chances of this occurring exactly as it did are practically zero. And if my Goddess's fantasy lover has both kinds of genitals, then that's definitely what _I_ want to have. Anything that will help me better serve Her. Besides, now that I'm getting used to the idea, having an enormous, horse-sized schlong is starting to seem pretty sexy. Even though I haven't yet touched it, just the feeling of the inhumanly large cock growing erect is enough to fill the enormous organ with an intense, needy pleasure. I'm already wondering which of Her tight, horny orifices Taylor is going to want me to stretch open with this fat fucker. I'd be worried about hurting Her with it if She was a normal girl, but I doubt anything I can do physically could _ever_ cause Her more than a momentary inconvenience, let alone harm Her.

All of these thoughts, this plan, came together in a bare few seconds, my amazingly quick brain and superpower working together in tandem to hammer out all of the relevant details at the speed of thought. Taylor looked like She was doing some serious Thinking herself, and She appeared to be about ready to say something. It was time to enact phase one of my insidious plot to keep my new precious person, the Deity I plan to love and worship, from learning that I was Her willing slave, by making Her think I'm upset at Her. A fat glob of rich, white precum oozing from the tip of my cock gives lie to my words before I even utter them; I'm already incredibly horny for my Mistress again, and thoughts of using Her latest gift to me to worship Her incredibly erotic body keep popping into my mind.

" _What the fuck_ , Taylor!?" I cried, forcing my body to actually _become upset_ for a second. I simulated being scared and incredulous, my tone of voice and physical tells mirroring what I intend to show Her perfectly. I can tell that She has some way of reading me like an open book; probably something to do with her healing and biomancy power. Any acting I do will need to be extremely convincing. The Goddess probably has an associated Thinker power that lets her read my physiology, something that tells her where to direct the healing and biological changes that she can perform. 'Panacea probably had something similar, come to think of it,' I thought.

Taylor eyes went wider, if possible, and the pretty brunette's chin quivered as She came close to tears. My heart ached a little, and I had to fight the nearly overwhelming desire to take Her into my arms and tell the sweet, beautiful Deity that I wasn't really mad at Her… that it was all going to be alright. I successfully pushed this traitorous impulse down, knowing that if my Goddess thought for just one second that She had accidentally Mastered me, _made_ _me_ love Her with powers, that She would do everything She can to reverse it. That _can not_ be allowed to happen. I'm happier than I have ever been in my life, I'm in love, and I now have a clear purpose in life. I am completely devoted to a gorgeous Goddess, someone who is important enough to me that I would die for Her with a smile on my lips if I had to. I am never, _ever_ going to go back to the had been before I met Her; drifting through life without any purpose or goal more important than making it through the day. Honestly put, I hadn't really had anything worth living for, before I met Taylor.

"Oops?" blurted out the teenage girl in response to making me grow a big dick. Her face turned beet red as soon as the ill spoken word emerged from Her mouth. The Brunette's hand shot up, and She clapped it over Her traitorous mouth, presumably to prevent further gaffes. I nearly laughed out loud at the teenage Goddess's antics, but again I mastered myself, a process made less difficult due to the perfect control I now possessed over my nervous system thanks to the upgrades Taylor performed when She saved my life.

I didn't have it in me to be angry with Her any longer, or to even make a show of pretending that I was upset. The best I could muster was annoyed exasperation, which was not even totally fake. Honestly, while funny, the unthinking comment was _exactly_ the worst possible thing that She could have said outside of insulting me or telling me to 'deal with it'. It was a little surprising that someone as obviously intelligent and well spoken as She seemed to be normally would let such a comment slip out.

I suddenly recalled that Taylor was the girl I'd seen in the restaurant right before my aneurysm; the memory played in my mind like a high definition video. Like the Archangel Ariel disguise, looking at Taylor's true form directly had made my powers go crazy, causing the first bout of brain damage. The sudden injury was the catalyst that had set this entire chain of events into motion, culminated in our present situation. I remembered Her father, or brother, or whoever that was sitting next to Taylor in the restaurant. I wondered if _he_ has foot-in-mouth disease, like my Goddess seems to. 'Maybe it's genetic?' I thought, resisting the urge to snicker.

I looked over at the most important person in the world with an exasperated expression on my face. Reaching up to pinch the bridge of my nose, I let out a half-sigh, half-grumble. " _God damnit_ , Taylor…" I said, expressing the displeasure I was supposed to be feeling at Her for the 'violation'. Honestly, having a big, meaty cock like the one my Goddess had given keeps sounding better and better all the time. The huge, sperm packed nuts hanging between my legs are beginning to throb now, as my penis continues to swell.

We both looked down at the enormous organ, which was coming life faster under the gaze of the beautiful Girl sitting next to me. Taylor had sat up during our 'confrontation', and now She had Her knees pulled up to Her chest, attempting to cover Her enormous tits… and failing. Side-boob spilled out from either side of Her knees, and I think I caught a flash of one of her nipples when She shifted position. We both stared as my big, thick cock began to fill with blood, a series of pleasant sensations coming from my groin as it rose. It was so enormous that it took a few moments to become fully erect, even in spite of the constant level of arousal I felt from having Taylor sitting next to me.

We both held our breath as the mighty organ inflated, becoming huge and stiff as it filled with blood. I could feel a heavy weight on my groin muscles as it got bigger, and the balls… _my_ balls… seemed to grow a little as well, becoming swollen and heavy as the dick my Mistress had given me became fully erect. When it was finally finished growing, we were both breathing hard and staring at it, our eyes wide. Simply put, it was monstrous.

Start with the mental image of a 'tall-boy' style beer can. Now, imagine someone gluing a softball on top of it to represent the head, and increasing both the length and the width of the entire finished product by approximately 50%. That's would be my my cock's slightly smaller little brother. The real, live organ was nearly overwhelming in its magnitude, filling the both Taylor and I with awe at its raw animal majesty, and a little bit of fear as well, at the thought of what such a beast might do to anyone unwise enough to let it willingly enter their body. God, damn... It was a good thing that Taylor was so durable; Her dream cock would tear a normal girl to shreds.

We both looked up at the same time, our eyes meeting over the top of the monumental thing standing straight up from my crotch. Taylor gulped, a bead of sweat rolling down Her forehead. She couldn't meet my gaze for long, though, because Her eyes kept drifting back down to stare at the enormous slab of beef She'd given me. The Goddess's gaze on my rock hard womanhood was a potent aphrodisiac, and I was unsurprised when thick, glue like globs of precum began leaking from the large opening at the tip. Big, greasy drops of precum rolled down the sides of the my huge cock, coating the entire shaft in hot, slippery precum.

"Well," I began, feigning reluctance. "I _guess_ we should probably try it out, before I make you fix this…" Taylor's eyes widened enormously, and She licked Her lips, a manic energy appearing to fill Her. "It would be a shame to 'take it back to the store' before seeing what it feels like, wouldn't it?" I asked my the beautiful Immortal, a husky note present in my voice. I shivered at the thought of what we would soon be doing; just the mental images alone were nearly enough to set off _another_ orgasm.

Taylor smiled, and the young teenage Goddess's head nodded up and down shyly in response to my question. The most beautiful woman in the world got onto all fours, before proceeding to crawl toward me with a hungry, desperate look on Her gorgeous face. Despite Her long arms, the Teenager's huge breasts were so large that they nearly touched the floor as She moved toward me; they were only held in check by their incredibly firmness. I smiled at the Divinity I was in love with, making sure to my face showed just a hint of nervousness. When She reached me, Taylor placed her hands, and slowly, sensually lowered Her head until Her full lips were less than a centimeter from the enormous head of my penis.

Pursing Her lips erotically, the curvy brunette pressed them against the wide tip of the enormous cock She had given me, giving it a long, passionate kiss. Taylor's plump lips were fully coated in the heavy globs of precum that my pulsating cock constantly ejected almost instantly, with the excess dripping down Her chin. The Goddess's little pink tongue shot out, plunging into the wide, pre weeping slit on the head of the improbable organ I now possessed. Eyes rolling into the back of my head, I fell backward, barely moving my arms behind me to catch myself as Taylor began wiggling Her tongue back and forth in my piss slit rapidly.

"Mmm~!" Taylor moaned around my pole as She began sucking hot, thick ropes of pre from my cock. She was using Her writhing tongue like a scoop to pull huge globs of the sticky cream I kept spewing into Her mouth, and then gulping it down noisily. The sweet, beautiful Girl's eyes were closed in pleasure as She serviced my giant prick, Her full lipped mouth sliding ever deeper as She kept up the intense suction that She had started performing as soon as Her lips touched the helmet of my fat dick. When She had engulfed the entire head, we both groaned in pleasure.

Getting my cock sucked was the most wonderful feeling I'd ever experienced. It felt like all the orgasms my little pussy had ever given me, rolled up into one incredibly intense feeling… and I hadn't even cum yet. Part of that, I'm sure, was because Taylor was the One servicing my huge endowment. I whimpered when the gorgeous Teenger pulled Her tongue from my hole, and began swallowing my enormity. I cracked one of my tightly closed eyelids for a peek, and almost lost it right then. The sight of Taylor's indescribably beautiful face stretched around my inhumanly wide prick was _beautiful_. Her plump lips, which I was sure had been _made_ for cocksucking, were stretched thin around the vast width of my enormously wide penis.

So much of my thickness was packed into Her mouth that my Goddess's cheeks bulged out obscenely. Natural science couldn't explain how Her mouth, which was perhaps a _little_ wider than average, were contorted around the humongous object inside of it without harming Her, but _it was_. Her jaw should have been broken, nevermind dislocated, from the feat, but it simply wasn't. She looked as happy as a clam about having Her sweet mouth stuffed by the gigantic cock She'd given me. As I stared down at the delicious scene before me, I was treated to the sight of my long shaft beginning to disappear into Taylor's throat when She began gently bobbing Her head up and down on my massive erection.

I whimpered in lust as my Goddess's neck, a graceful work of art in and of itself, began to bulge out around my girth obscenely. As the delicious heat of Her oral passageway engulfed me, the Teenageer's throat swelled, nearly doubling in thickness as She took me deep into Her mouth. I desperately held myself back from cumming, as I knew that Taylor would want to at least swallow all of the enormity She gave me before I filled Her sweet divine tummy up with the huge, boiling hot load of baby batter that my enormous nuts were making _just for Her_. The feeling of my fat cockhead traveling down the sweet, sexy Brunette's throat became all encompassing. The insanely sensitive nerves on the underside of the fat dome, right where it met my shaft, were rubbing against the hot, slick inner walls of my Goddess's throat as She swallowed around it, driving me crazy with lust. I whimpered out loud, causing Taylor to smile around her stretched mouthful.

I was able to successfully hold back my orgasm under Taylor's intensely pleasurable onslaught, but the urge to do _something_ was nearly unbearable. Before I realized what I was doing, I found myself bent over Taylor's kneeling form with my hands tangled in my Goddess's silky hair. I snarled something incredibly nasty at my Mistress, and then I drove my hips forward... _hard_. The gorgeous Deity blinked in surprise as at least another half a foot of my fat cumslinger was shoved into Her body, impaling the young Girl's face nearly to the root on my long dick. I froze up at my rash action, but thankfully Taylor didn't seem to mind; in fact, my power told me that She like it… She like it _a lot_ , in fact.

"Take it deep, _slut_!" I snarled at her, causing Taylor's hot little cunt to spasm, a small orgasm tearing through her. My Goddess shoved Her head downward, pushing even more of my length into Her _very, very tight_ throat.

A muffled moan of pleasure vibrated up my length, and Taylor redoubled Her efforts to get me to hilt in her tight throat. The sex-addled Goddess reached up with one hand to grab my hip, and then the other, until she was only supported by her knees and the huge penis lodged in her esophagus. Then She pulled on me with all the force that She could muster, forcing another couple of inches deep inside of Her. I helped Taylor in Her efforts, using my death-grip on Her hair to jam as much of my cock into the Divinity as I could. It only took a few more lunges before the sophomore's nearly translucent lips were stretched around the insanely thick base of my erection. I could feel the new Goddess's little tongue trying to move, from where it was trapped at the bottom of Her mouth by the vast circumference of the organ I was stuffing Her with. I groaned, loud and deep at the delicious, hot hole that I was stuffing to capacity. It was the best physical sensation that I had ever felt in my life, and I never wanted it to end.

Taylor used her knees and core muscles to lunge backward violently, pulling almost half of my hugeness out of Her face. She was only stopped by my hands, which still had Her hair trapped in them. The sharp tug at her silky tresses stopped her backward momentum. With a saucy wink, Taylor lunged again, this time forward. I helped Her along with my hands and hips, scooting forward and shoving with all my might, causing my Goddess's face to meet my pelvic bone with a dull smack. I whimpered in lust at once more being fully inside of Her, and ground my crotch into Her face while making small humping motions. I could feel the beautiful Goddess I was facefucking grip me harder, forcing the last fraction of an inch fully inside of Her. She then began moving her head up and down and side to side, causing my thick cock to rub powerfully against the sides of Her tight throat, making the huge veins of my shaft dig deliciously into her sweet, slick walls.

I shuddered in sheer ecstasy, my balls rising and beginning to twitch and my body locked up to the point that I could barely move. My beautiful Angel tensed, and the suction She was exerting on the enormous slab of meat I was fucking into Her throat increased exponentially. I felt the ultra-tight sheath of Her throat begin pulling and milking on my long, thick cock. It felt like Taylor was going to suck my balls up through my cock. That was all I could take; my eyes rolled back into my head and my body collapsed backward; thankfully Taylor had the presence of mind to follow me down, the delicious bobs of Her head never slowing and the suction never wavering as my Goddess scrambled forward and rode my shuddering body to the ground. Tensing up even further, to the point that my joints felt like they might snap, I came. My huge nuts began to ache _good_ , and something in my groin exploded like a gun. The thick cock in Taylor's throat became thicker, and it lengthened at well.

A huge, greasy bolt of cum blasted into Taylor's stomach. The brunette winked at me as She swallowed around my insanely wide cock, the delicious gagging motions that She made like heaven to my shuddering, way blowing erection. I cried out and wailed, tears pouring from the corners of my eyes as I fucked my Mistress's face, pumping her flat, sexy tummy full of load after load of thick, greasy girl-spunk. My balls felt like they were in a vice grip as I jizzed, tears pouring from my eyes as dense ropes of sperm laden fuck batter splattered into the most important Person in the world's tight, sucking throat.

As she stared into Taylor's lust filled eyes, Lisa couldn't help it... When the next burst of thick cum exploded from the head of her huge girly cock, the teenage villainess-turned-priestess passed the fuck out, her every sensation and emotion, thought and feeling turned in mind bendingly powerful sexual pleasure by the young Goddess who was orally servicing her massive weapon.

 **.** **.** **.**

Pulling her stuffed face off of Lisa's horse-sized schlong, Taylor looked down at the unconscious, blissed out form of the girl that she had rescued. She took the still-spewing prick in one hand, and began rubbing the spurting, spooging organ against her big, sexy titties and flat tummy as it coated her in a thick layer of cum. She took care of Lisa's pulsing, discharging weapon sweetly, rubbing and sucking the cum out of the girl's huge cock until her orgasm completely tapered off. Pulling the fat, bloated cockhead from her stretched mouth with an audible 'pop', Taylor looked down at the still-sleeping girl, who had an enormous smile on her face.

The young Goddess smiled down at her newest friend, her hand still working the sexy girl's big, softening cock. She gently kissed Lisa on her pink lips, globs of super thick, gunky semen sticking to the girl's pink lips. Smiling, Taylor licked her lips, making an appreciative due to the strong, salty flavor of the blonde girl's baby batter. Swallowing her friend's sperm, Taylor waited for Lisa to wake up.


End file.
